


Not all Monsters are Created Equal

by DarkJediQueen



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: M/M, Monsters, One-Shot, Threats Against Children, violence against animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 13:03:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14895125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Things go bump in the night and some of them look human. Some might even be the people you trust most in the world.





	Not all Monsters are Created Equal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [swtalmnd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/swtalmnd/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Light Up My Room](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6108604) by [swtalmnd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/swtalmnd/pseuds/swtalmnd). 



> **Year** : Season 10  
>  **Spoilers** : Up Through Season 10  
>  **Notes** : Based off the series [Project Monster](https://archiveofourown.org/series/447223) with the author's permission. The Little Spies are all androgynous, both male and female. They will be referred to as its for the story.  
>  **Warnings** : Threats Against Children, Violence Against Animals,  
>  **Beta** : rivermoon1970  
> 

Spencer Reid hated using the shadows to move around. He only used them when he had to and getting into Hotch's apartment wasn't easy, even using the shadows. There was no shadow big enough for him to fully enter the apartment except for the closet and even it was a fight. Hotch's apartment was protected against all manner of monsters that would want to enter, but Spencer was no ordinary monster. Hotch had his apartment alarmed, but it was against someone entering through a window or the door. Once inside, Spencer had the run of the place, but he had to make sure that he didn't move anything. Hotch would notice that right away.

"So exactly what are you afraid of, Hotch?" Spencer asked himself aloud. He took in the living room and saw the hidden lights that had been concealed in the nooks and crannies around the room. None of the team, including Hotch, had been there for the actual birthday party. Hotch used their apartment for the members of the team to give Jack his birthday wishes. It had been the first time that Spencer had ever been in the apartment. Hotch had never even invited the team over to his house he'd lived in with Haley, so no one had said a single thing about never getting invited to the apartment.

The faint scent of a monster was only in a single room, and Spencer growled as he realized, after opening the door, that it was Jack's room. There was no reason for a monster to go after a child. Even the worst of them had learned long ago that killing children was taboo because humans liked to fix that kind of death and Monsters had been too close to being revealed more than once because of the death of a child. Children saw monsters more than adults, but for children, it was easy to pass it all off to the adults around them. Spencer entered Jack's room and found that it was the most lit up. There were blackout curtains on every single window, all pulled closed so that the bright light wasn't visible outside. There were fairy lights strung up around the top of the room and five lamps on various surfaces. All had long-lasting bulbs in them.

The scent of the monster was one that Spencer didn't know at all. It was concentrated on the window. For the monster to never make it inside, meant that he wasn't humanoid like Spencer, he was the whole deal and dangerous. But weak if he hadn't got to his prey yet. He couldn't fully manifest in the human world until he killed. If he was focusing on Jack or Hotch, that meant it was someone that they had crossed paths with before and had died. There was a long list of humans that it could have been and even Jack's own mother, Haley. Spencer really hoped that it wasn't her. He would kill her again if she had sold her soul to live again but it would hurt.

"You aren't getting him," Spencer said aloud even though he was sure that the monster wasn't trying to manifest at that point. Spencer felt inside himself and found the tiny link that connected him to his little monsters. His spies. He'd never used a spy to watch Hotch, even when Foyet had been after the man because while the spies were smart, they were clumsy and hyper and he didn't want one of them making itself known to Foyet. Three sets of eyes blinked at him from outside the window. It was too bright for them to come into the apartment.

"Spencer need us?" Plato asked as it appeared in the nook made in Spencer's shirt pocket.

"I need you and Virgil and Homer to stay here and watch this apartment. There is a monster trying to get to Jack."

"Henry, too?" Homer asked from inside Spencer's vest.

"No, just Jack."

"Too brights," Virgil lamented. He sneezed and shivered from Spencer's pants pocket. The spies were good at finding just enough darkness on him to appear, but they had been smart to appear outside first.

"Henry no in trouble?" Homer asked.

"No. Henry is fine. This someone is going after just Jack and Hotch by extension."

"Oh."

Spencer laughed to himself. All of his spies were attached to Henry even though Clara was the one that watched Henry all the time. Henry even had a small nest in his desk drawer for it to live in.

"Jack scared," Plato said as it sniffed around in the air. "None of us will make friends."

"No, I thought that maybe Ash would work, but I want to talk to it first. I want you three to guard the building. I'll figure out a way to get Ash to Jack, maybe through Henry and Clara."

"That's good. That work."

"Clara," Spencer called out. He felt his back pants pocket wiggle a little and laughed before he reached back and pulled Clara from his pocket. The littlest of his spies blinked at him and took in the room.

"Fraidy Hotch's boy," Clara said as it looked around the room again. Clara was the most used to the light. It had been with Henry since he'd been born. Naming Spencer Henry's Godfather had been something that JJ hadn't understood exactly what she was doing. Clara had watched Henry grow up and from infancy became his "imaginary" friend. It went with Henry everywhere, including the boy making sure that Clara was safe at school. At one point, JJ would question that the imaginary friend wasn't going away and Spencer would deal with it then. Until then Clara was Henry's guard. "That's not good at all. What's wrong with Jack?"

"A monster is after him. I want you to keep Ash with you and the next time that Jack is with Henry, make them friends. Ash is going to live with Jack."

"Good. Jack needs a friend. I make it happen. Where Ash?"

"In my apartment like it always is."

"Be good for Ash and for Jack. Henry would love it. Ash and I can be secret messengers back and forth."

"Whatever you want to do." Spencer knew that Clara did a lot of what it called secret fun stuff for Henry. Including pranking Spencer on occasion. Henry didn't know that Clara was Spencer's spy, but Spencer knew about Henry's imaginary friend, and on occasion, Spencer asked about how Clara was doing with Henry. Spencer had made sure that Clara knew to tell Henry that adults couldn't see imaginary friends and he shouldn't try and show it to them.

"Be funs after monster goes away. Who is it?" Clara asked. While it had the best grip on the human language, it had only a few years learning it, same as Henry and sometimes being around the other spies made Clara's language revert closer to the generally accepted speech.

"I don't know. I'm going to find out though."

The sound of a key in the door alerted Spencer that someone was trying to gain entrance to the door. Jack and Hotch were supposed to be gone for the weekend, a small trip to the coast for father and son.

"Scatter," Spencer said, and the spies all disappeared. It was the code word for them leaving without a fight. Spencer forced himself into the small shadow that was made by the blackout curtains and hoped from Jack's bedroom to the living room. Hotch was opening the door with Jack in his arms, the boy asleep on his father's shoulder with what looked like a cast on his left wrist. Spencer frowned to himself. JJ and Henry were right on Hotch's feet, and Spencer's frown deepened. Clara kept Henry's secrets, never telling Spencer anything unless it was dangerous.

"You didn't have to pick us up, JJ. Henry should still be asleep."

"Henry heard you call me and he was worried. You guys didn't even make it out of town." JJ's voice was loud even as she made it down the hall towards Jack's room, following Hotch. Spencer moved towards that shadow and peeked at what was happening. The man laid Jack down on the bed and Henry crawled into bed with him. Spencer smiled at the small lump that moved right around Henry's hip. He wasn't shocked that Clara went right to Henry when Spencer had told it to scatter. Another lump moved just below, thankfully neither JJ or Hotch saw it.

"Jack will like having Henry here this weekend since our trip to the beach was canceled. Hard to have fun in the water when one can't go in the water."

"Well, I have Henry's bag in the car. I'll run down and get it." JJ left the room, and so did Hotch. Spencer didn't manifest himself more. Henry shifted on the bed and pulled the blanket to see Clara. Ash was there was well. Spencer glared at the little spies.

"Is this your friend?" Henry asked Clara.

"Yes. This is Ash. Ash wants to be friends with Jack."

"Jack said that a shadow monster hurt him. Scared him in the train station and he fell and broke his arm. The monster wants to hurt him."

"Hen?" Jack called out as he sat up on the bed. He rubbed his eye with his good hand, and Spencer saw the grotesque hand-shaped bruise on that arm. Spencer recognized it easy as from a Monster. Ash turned towards Spencer with an angry look on its face.

"It's me, Jack," Henry whispered. "We have to be quiet Mom, and Uncle Aaron are out there."

"Who is this?" Jack asked. He reached out to pet Clara. Clara crawled up into Jack's lap and nuzzled into his hurt hand. Jack's gaze though was on Ash.

"My name is Ash, Jack Hotchner," Ash said as it moved towards Jack on the edge of Henry's knee. It didn't reach out to touch Jack, but it did hold out its hand for Jack to shake. Spencer smiled. Ash had taught itself to read and to write while it lived in Spencer's apartment and then later in the house. The poor thing had been born white instead of the black that all the other spies were. Spencer had recused it and kept it safe. "I wanna be your friend."

"You are white, unlike Clara."

"I born different. My master protects me and keeps me safe. He does not allow anyone to hurt me for being different."

"Who is your master?" Jack asked.

"Secret. Secrets keep me safe. Secrets keep you safe. Master never want to harm you. I promise this," Ash smiled at Jack and when Jack finally reached out and held out two fingers for Ash to shake. Jack shook Ash's hand gently.

"What is your master's name?" Jack asked.

Ash looked at Clara before glancing at the curtain. The little spies could see Spencer. He nodded, and Ash seemed to puff up.

"The other Monsters call him The Doctor."

"Like Doctor Who?" Jack asked.

"Yes."

"I like Doctor Who. I like it when Dad lets me spend the day with Uncle Spencer, and we watch it." Jack smiled for the first time since he'd woken up, but he yawned afterward.

Clara clicked it's tongue, causing Jack to giggle. "It's past bedtime for all little humans. Ash and I will watch and make sure that no monsters appear. If one does, I'll call my Master. Master will protect Ash and Clara and Jack and Henry."

"Good. I hate the dark," Jack said. He laid down, and Henry laid down as well. With a beat of the wings on their backs, Ash and Clara covered the boys up and left a kiss on their foreheads. The little spies then moved to the edge of the bed and flew up to land on the sconces on either side of the bed, settling in for the long night.

Spencer didn't leave until he heard the boy's breathing deep and he knew they were asleep. He moved back to the living room to find Hotch sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee in hand, half gone and both of his guns on the coffee table. Spencer thought him admirable, but there wasn't anything that the gun would do for what was after Jack.

Two hours later, Hotch turned the lights off to the living room and waited in the dark. Spencer kept watching as the man tried to invite the Monster who was hunting his son into their apartment. Spencer knew the Monster wouldn't show up. He'd made his move for the day, it was a way to wear Hotch down. Make small moves that wore him out and then when he was at his weakest, the Monster was going to strike.

Spencer had got good at making sure that not even Monsters knew that he was one as well. He left no trace and spies being around with kids wouldn't be that much of a trigger for the Monster hunting, Jack. The monster would make his move, and Spencer would be there. He just had a few things he had to do first.

* * *

Weeks went by, and Spencer never got a look at that monster after Jack. He knew that it was one of the weaker ones but strong enough to do damage. Spencer knew that he would win. He wasn't a made monster, he was a born one. He would never lose to a made monster. He wouldn't have been shocked if it was one of the various UnSubs the team had been forced to kill over the years. They had gone after a lot of UnSubs that went after kids.

One strange thing after another and then Spencer was standing in Hotch's living room with Jack on the couch. Jessica was stuck in Maryland on site for work, and Hotch had a court case that was running late. Hotch had called Spencer, and he had barely made it before the older lady in Hotch's building had left Jack alone.

Jack was sullen and withdrawn, nothing like he had been before what had happened to his arm. Spencer had tried to get him to talk, but the boy had only just shrugged a shoulder for an answer. The curtains moved, and every single time that they did, Jack would tense up.

"Get them gone," Spencer uttered to the little spy that was hiding in the silverware drawer. "Only Ash."

"Yes, Master Spencer," Plato answered.

Spencer could hear better than he let on. His hearing tests were normal according to every doctor he saw, but he hid how finely tuned it really was.

Jack though was only muttering to Ash. The little spy was hiding in a small shadow on the couch made by a slightly off-center pillow. Ash had reported to Spencer that Jack had made a little fort on his bed for Ash to live in. It was made by a little plush pillow on the bottom and a large pillow that leaned over it and was against the headboard. The shadow was his, and so he could keep it. Nothing could enter that space unless it was another little spy of Spencer's. That was a bond between them that Spencer had never fully understood. He couldn't even enter a space that was theirs.

When the storm started up an hour before Jack's bedtime, Spencer could feel a charge in the air. He wasn't sure what the cause of the storm was, but it wasn't nature made. Spencer frowned when the storm raged harder and harder over the seconds.

"Ash, protection mode," Spencer whispered, knowing that the little spy's ears would hear. Spencer was afraid of what was going to happen. There was no way to hide what he was if the monster attacked but having Jack hurt by the monster wasn't an option.

The storm raged, and the lightning cracked, flash after flash. Closer and closer the storm came. It was right above the apartment building when the lights went out. Jack came running as soon as the lights went out. Jack grabbed his arm and pulled.

"We have to go, Spencer!" Jack pulled him towards the door even harder, if Spencer had been anyone else or a human, he probably would have been pulled over. "It's not safe."

"You are right. Let's go outside where it is safe." Spencer picked up Jack, using his rarely used strength to carry him with no issue. He turned to the door and found a deeper shadow there. Jack clung to him and started to shiver. The deep shadow turned into three separate ones. Spencer sighed and held Jack tighter. The feel of something started to form behind him. He didn't fear the sentries, made to scare even an adult into staying away but the new monster, there was something to fear in him. That was Jack's fear.

Spencer turned to watch the other monster force himself into the human plane. Spencer pressed Jacks into his shoulder, covering Jack's free ear with his hand. The monster moaned as he pulled himself from death.

"Leave him, and you'll live," the monster said. The pure fear the monster was putting off had Jack crying. "I just want him. You were a fly, a speck on the wall, but I'll make an exception and rip your guts from you."

Spencer felt a fission of fear, the same one he had felt when around George Foyet. Everything made sense.

"You are never going to get your hands on him again, George."

"George?" Jack asked, jerking out of Spencer's hold. He looked at the monster and glared. "The George who killed Mommy?"

"Yes, Jack. Now I need you to do me a favor. Call for Ash."

"Ash?" Jack asked.

"A little bastard of a spy isn't going to stop me, weakling. I'd love to know how you made sure Jack made a little friend, it's a nuisance more than anything else."

"ASH!" Jack screamed, and Ash came right then. Appearing on Jack's shoulder, clinging to his ear.

"If I had known that you were going to sell yourself to come back to this world, I would have hunted you before now."

"Monster hunters don't live long," Foyet said.

"Nor do the monsters they hunt." Spencer unwrapped Jack's arms from around his neck and set him down. He moved towards where he had set down his bag. Inside was an invention of his own making. Foyet lurched towards them as Spencer set something down on the floor. When the device expanded, Spencer pushed Jack into it, and as soon as he was entirely inside, intense light blasted out of it. Jack closed his eyes as the light was sure to blind him. Foyet turned in his lunge and circled around the light, reaching out and touching it. Hissing in pain. As Foyet turned to face Spencer, Spencer smiled at him.

Spencer had played with his smile as a child, learning who and what he was had been a considerable part of life for him growing up. Testing his limits and making sure that he was as human as possible when he wanted to be. So he knew what he looked like as his smile widened past human limits. He showed his teeth, teeth that were sharp like needles, and were used to rip flesh apart. Spencer allowed the side of himself that he kept hidden to takeover. The world sharpened, he could see in the shadows better. See the little monsters that Foyet had brought to his side with his sheer power but it was unrefined, and every single one of those monsters was going to die. Wings sprouted from Spencer's back, finishing what he was. Foyet looked at him, and there was just a hint of fear in that look.

"You are too new to understand how this world works, George Foyet. You may have been the Reaper when you were human, but here, in your new world, I am the Reaper."

Spencer pulled on his little spies. All twenty-seven of the black ones appeared in the room, near as one, coming and finding little places to hang.

"The spies are looked over in the hierarchy of monsters. Useful for nothing but spying but I have found that they are good for something."

Spencer didn't even have to tell his little spies a single thing. It didn't take long at all for the three monsters that Foyet had brought with him here to die. Foyet looked at the bodies on the ground as the spies stared at him.

"They make wonderful little assassins. No one notices them. Jack is not now nor will he ever be at your mercy, George Foyet." Spencer flapped his wings a single time, and it launched him across the gap between him and Foyet. His hands were talons, and he speared them into Foyet's gut, or where his gut would have been in his human form. The door opened behind Spencer he didn't even look as he ripped his hands up. Foyet tried to scream, but Spencer slashed his throat after taking a hand from his chest. Spencer would have his little spies do the cleanup. Spencer reached over and turned off the device that was protecting Jack. He kept the groan of pain to himself as it burned him.

The click of the safety off of a gun had Spencer raising his hands up to the back of his head as he moved to his knees.

* * *

Aaron knew that the power was out in his building before the taxi that he had taken home had got within a block, he just knew it, and he didn't know how. He grabbed money as the taxi pulled into the drop off zone in front. He threw the money up figuring that he was giving the driver a big assed tip, but the guy hadn't said a thing about the gun after Aaron has flashed a badge and he hurried. The stairs leading up to his floor were cleared two and sometimes three at a time.

The front door was still locked, so Aaron had to take the time to actually unlock it. The alarm made no sound as he entered, but Aaron barely paid it any attention as he took in the scene in front of him. Jack was surrounded by light, and there were crawling shadows around the entire room. There were four dead things in the room and another thing that was alive. Aaron watched as the thing reached over and turned off the light that was surrounding Jack. Jack didn't move though but was looking at the thing as it moved. Aaron drew his gun and clicked the safety off. The thing moved, and Aaron watched in shock as it moved to the surrender position with its hands, talons, claws, whatever they were settled at the back of its head. It didn't move as Aaron moved forward. Jack was finally looking around. He looked at Aaron before he looked at the thing on the floor and finally looked at something down his shirt.

Aaron watched in shock as Jack's shirt moved and a white thing with wings crawled out from under the bottom hem. It crawled up Jack's body and settled on his shoulder, seemingly nuzzling in at his neck.

"Jack, where's Reid?" Aaron asked. He could see Reid's messenger bag on the stand, but there was no evidence of the genius anywhere. Aaron started to get worried that he would find Reid dead in one of the other rooms.

"Don't shoot!" Jack screamed and before Aaron could blink he was standing behind the thing in the living room, blocking Aaron from getting a good shot off.

"Jack, get away from it!" Aaron cried out.

"DON'T SHOOT!" Jack screamed, and Aaron was afraid that someone would call the cops.

"Jack," it said, voice raspy and it turned slightly. Aaron trained the gun on what he could see of it. He wasn't even sure that he could kill it with a gun. Whispering came from all around him, and he looked away from it for a second to see that the little shadow things settled in around Jack. One even landed on Jack's other shoulder.

"Clara, Ash, go. I don't want you to get hurt," Jack pleaded. Jack reached up and tried to shove the two things on his shoulders away.

"Go," the bigger thing said, and Aaron watched as most of the things disappeared, but the two on Jack didn't go. "Clara, Ash, go."

"No," one of them said. Aaron wasn't sure if it was Clara or Ash. "Stays. Aaron no hurt. Aaron no hurt you."

Aaron looked at the little white thing that spoke. It had called him Aaron. The name Ash was familiar. He remembered Jack talking about a friend of his named Ash. Jessica talked about Jack's friend a lot. She had told Aaron t it wasn't odd for Jack to have an imaginary friend as late in life as he did given what had happened in the wake of Foyet. The friend had manifested after the horrible stuff had started to happen again, but Aaron knew this was something else.

Jack picked the white thing off of his shoulder and held it out in his hands as he stepped closer to Aaron.

"Ash, this is my father. Dad, Ash is my friend, and Clara is Henry's. They protect us."

"Jack, you know what that is. Now, where is Reid and please get out of my way." Aaron tried to plead with Jack with his eyes, but the thing on the floor drew his attention. He watched as the shadows around it disappeared and where there had been darkness slowly became clothes. Aaron's grip on his gun became a little lax as he realized that he knew the clothes. "Reid?"

"Sorry, Hotch," Reid said, his voice still closer to the rasp that it had been and not his normal voice. He looked human though, from the back.

"Slowly turn around. Stay on your knees." Aaron wasn't going to take any chances. He wasn't going to risk it being Jack that was hurt.

"Daddy, don't." Jack dropped Ash from his hands and ran to Reid, wrapping his arms around him and clinging to him. "He killed George to protect me."

"George?"

"George Foyet. There are several kinds of monsters in the world. We hunt human ones, but sometimes the truly vile make a deal to save themselves. To become truly evil things. Foyet did that, and he's been slowly crawling his way into the world. He's the monster that you have feared for months, probably years. He's the one who hurt Jack and broke his arm."

"And Ash?"

"You're the Doctor!" Jack cried out but he still had his arms wrapped around Reid, so when the man, thing, Aaron wasn't sure what he was stood up, Reid picked Jack up as well.

"Yes. I sent Clara to help watch over Henry when he was born and when the team came over for the party, I recognized the home of someone who was hiding from other monsters, so I came back when no one was home. I've had some of my little spies watching over the apartment, but I knew that I had one of them make friends with you, it would need to be Ash, who is my little albino spy. When your father allowed Henry to stay that night, it was easier to introduce you to Ash. You took to it well."

"I..." Aaron still had the gun leveled at Reid, but Jack was there in his arms, not caring that the smile on Reid's face was a little too large and his teeth way too sharp. There was a weird black ichor like blood all over his hands, and four dead bodies in the apartment and the storm was still raging, and the lights were still out, and Aaron didn't know if he was still sane. Aaron clicked the safety back on before he put his gun back in his holster and just looked around.

"If you promise not to hurt my spies, they can clean up the bodies. No one will know."

"How many do you have?" Jack asked. He looked at Spencer's face with wonder on it. Aaron wasn't sure that he liked that.

"Twenty-eight. Set that number in my mind when I was young. It's a perfect number, and I fell in love with it. So I searched for years, taking them in when I could. Ash was the last one. He was hurt when I found it. Other's tried to kill it, and I saved it. He really likes the home you made for him.

"I can't make room for twenty-eight in my room!" Jack cried out.

Reid laughed, smiling as he did. "Not all of them live with me all the time. There are twelve that live with my mother where she lives in Bennington. I can call them all to me when I need, like today but when they leave, they go back to her. Sixteen stay with me all the time, well, fourteen if you count that Ash and Clara live with Henry and you. A few have learned to cook, and they feed each other. Others clean. And a few hunt books for me while I am working. Sometimes if a case screams monster to me, I bring a few with me to help protect the team."

"Wow. Can I meet them all?"

"Most of them have named themselves, so no comments on Pizza and Duck, but sure. When they are done cleaning up, Ash can make sure that you meet them all. A few might have to wait, they get a little worried when mom is alone for too long."

Jack wiggled out of Reid's hold, and he took off towards his room, grabbing Ash as he ran through the room. The little spy, as Reid had called it, didn't even protest or move as Jack grabbed it and cuddled it to his chest. Jack ran into his room and shut the door.

"If you feel better with your gun out, please do. I'd rather you feel safe than unsafe."

"Because it's all about me right?" Aaron demanded.

"Because you have been stalked for years by a monster set on killing your son and because of that you found out that I am a monster as well. I will feel safe anywhere, you are the one that needs to feel safe."

"I don't understand any of this. What the hell kind of deal did you make to come back?" Aaron demanded.

"I didn't make a deal at all. I was born a monster. From my father's side. His parents were a human and a made monster. Father had a brother who was a born monster. Father didn't tell mom, and when I was born, it was part of what started to cause issues. The first of my little spies came to me in the crib. I named him Homer. Mom's disease got worse because of the shadows that she was seeing and father not telling her the truth. She stabilized out after father left and she learned about the shadow world. I've protected her as much as I can. Some born or even made monsters love to try and work in places where mom live. They can thrive on the torturing an already tortured mind. Bennington's director is a born monster who took over Bennington to protect the people there after she graduated from her third degree. She makes sure that Mom is cared for and that the little spies have all they need. They have made friends with a few other residents."

"This is...fuck." Aaron sat down on the couch, missing a little spy. It scrambled out of the way.

"Sorrys, Master Aaron Hotch."

"No, I'm sorry. I'm in your way." Aaron had no clue why he spoke to it. "And you don't have to call me that. Aaron or Hotch is fine."

"Master Aaron Hotch, my name is Duck." The little spy ducked its head a little and dropped off the back of the couch where it had landed after Aaron almost sat on it. Aaron stretched up to look over the back of the couch and saw that Duck was crawling under the couch just as the lights came back on inside the apartment. Aaron could see all of the spies better. One of them moved towards him, getting close and staring at him from the coffee table.

"Hello," Aaron said with a smile on his face. He reached out a hand to shake thought better of it, he made a loose fist but kept a single finger stretched out. The little spy reached out and wrapped a hand around his finger and shook it.

"Mister Aaron, my name is Clara." It smiled at Aaron. "I watch over Henry. I glad that Master Spencer was able to stop the mean monster. Do you need anything Mister Aaron?"

"I don't know what I need." Aaron wasn't sure at all about what he needed. His head was spinning, and he was lost. Aaron didn't like feeling lost. The little spy seemingly inhaled then frowned.

"You smell funny now." Clara sniffed at Aaron again before she looked Reid.

"What?" Aaron didn't understand.

"Master Spencer, you needs to stay."

"I know Clara." Reid's voice was right there, and Aaron looked to see that Reid was at his side with a glass of whiskey in his hand.

"What is she...it talking about?" Aaron took the glass and held it in his hands, but he didn't drink it.

"It is the correct pronoun. People who find out about the monsters, their scent changes, and it will attract other monsters. The true missing persons cases that never get a resolution, that's what happens. If there is anything left of the body, usually it has a little spy dump it in the ocean. You've been on the edge of the world and finding out about it fully has changed your scent. You will attract more of the monsters now."

"What does that mean?"

"That means that for a week, maybe two you will need to stay with me. Whether that is here or at my house, it doesn't matter. Until the smell goes away. That means if we get a case, we will have to room together. Where you go, I go."

"Why?"

"Because the monsters will kill you to keep their secret. They are simple in that once the smell is gone, they don't try and track the person. They assume when the smell is gone that another monster killed the human."

"This is insane, you know that right?" Aaron downed the glass of whiskey, not even feeling it as it burned down his throat. "What about Jack?"

"My spies will watch him, and I can get back here quickly, even across the country. It'll just be a matter of time. I cannot take you with me in the shadows. That will kill you." Reid moved around from Aaron's side to sit down on the coffee table, his knees brushing Aaron's as he relaxed down. Aaron wanted to jerk away, Reid's hands still had a little of the black ichor on them. He looked to have cleaned his hands too quickly, which was the only show that he was nervous.

"Does...how..." Aaron stopped because he had no clue what question he wanted to ask. He was saved by Duck coming over and tapping Reid's knee.

"Master Spencer, the house is clean. You are not. Clara has gone back to Henry's, and the Literature Dozen have gone back to Vegas. Ash will make sure that Jacks meets them when they want. I lost roshambo and have to stay on overnight duty."

Aaron pressed his lips together to try and stop himself from laughing because he was pretty sure that if he started to laugh, he was going to cry. He looked around and saw that all of the spies were gone. The one that was on the coffee table at Reid's side was the only one left, other than Ash, Aaron assumed.

"I'll be fine, Duck. I'm hungry, but I'm fine."

"So you want me to send Eros after dinner?"

"That sounds good. There should be plenty of cash in the drawer. Jack ate enough at dinner that I think he will be fine. You know what I want and get Hotch whatever he wants. Hotch do you mind if I go and clean up in your bathroom?"

"Go."

"So you are going to be staying here?" Aaron asked Duck.

"Unless Master Spencer takes pity on me. Plato usually does overnight watch."

"You speak better than some of the others."

"Some are younger. The better that one speaks, the more they have been read to. Plato and I were the first. Plato killed another spy in the protection of Master Spencer, and I was there. I told Plato to duck, and the name stuck. I wanted to be called Tiger, but Plato kept calling me Duck, and when another spy joined us, I lost. We were with Master Spencer when Mistress Diana read to Spencer."

"Why isn't Plato here then?"

"He is, now. He's bringing clothes to Spencer in the bathroom and giving him a report."

"Report on what?"

"Plato is...bloodthirsty. Plato also sent out others to check to on the team when they finished their parts of cleaning. All should have reported back."

"So Plato is the boss of your guys?"

"Plato is the best equipped to protect and understand how to protect. His former master was a horrible human. Plato killed him when he caught him-" Duck looked at the hallway where Jack's room was and where Reid had disappeared. "He was hurting a child in the building that he lived. So when the monster was taking a bath, he knocked the fan into the water. Wiring in the building was bad, and it blew the whole house as well as fried the monster."

"And Reid just took him in?"

"Master Spencer was ten. To him, it was something that should happen because the child was three."

"And he was..."

"Born monster but raised by a horrible, horrible monster family."

"Duck," Reid said as he entered the room in a new set of clothes. Aaron blinked as he took in Reid in a plain T-shirt and a pair of worn jeans. He had never seen him in clothes like that before. "If you don't want to be guard dog tonight, Plato has offered. Just get dinner."

"What are the options?" Aaron wasn't sure exactly how Duck would go and get food. He wasn't sure that a store would just let him waltz in or a restaurant.

"Burgers or Ethiopian."

Aaron raised an eyebrow at that one. He gave Duck his order and watched the thing disappear in a shadow. He realized that some of his lights had been turned out. Just enough for small pockets for the spies to move in and out of.

"Once Duck gets back we can turn all of the lights back on. When I am in my human form, the lights don't bother me but in my monster form the lights will."

"Do you need the lights off to sleep?"

"What?" Reid looked at him, a little shocked. He sat down on the end of the coffee table, in front of Aaron again. Aaron smelled coffee and frowned. "Plato knows me well, and your coffee maker is easier than mine to operate. I hope you don't mind."

"No I just...what is Plato, your personal valet?"

"No, it just sees me as his child of sorts. Duck is the same way. They take orders from me but mother me as well. Plato is bloodthirsty as hell. Does Jack normally stay in his room for this long?"

Aaron stood up and said nothing as he moved back to Jack's room. What he found was Jack dead asleep on the bed with Ash sitting on a pillow and rubbing his fingers through Jack's hair.

"Jacks be sleeping, Hotch. You wake him up, and you face my wrath." Ash glared as much as it could, making Aaron step out of the room and shut the door. He was shocked that Jack was as asleep. When Aaron turned around, Reid was right there.

"He's asleep, and Ash threatened me."

"Ash probably had help. One of the others that soothed me as a kid. It is kind of troubling that he is asleep already. He should have been wired or scared."

"Or he trusts you will keep him safe. After Foyet, he slept well the first few nights, as long as we shared a bed."

"I think it's Ash more than anything. And no Ash will never tell you anything that Jack tells it. It doesn't tell me anything. I don't ask, and Ash would never tell anyway. Unless Jack is going to hurt himself, physically. It's what I made Clara promise me when it came to Henry."

"Does the FBI know what you are?"

"Do you think I passed physical at all as I am? Yes the FBI knows what I am. Getting me into the BAU was the fight of Gideon's career. They wanted me in undercover or another unit like that, but I wouldn't allow myself to be used that way. I am my own monster, and it wasn't hard to convince them that I was shit at the physical stuff. I am no wonder agent or wonder monster. The allowances that were made for me passing the Academy were more for the fact that it was hard to test me. I do suck at running and dodging because I tend to shift to shadows to move like that. My hearing is better than it should be and I have signed a lot of documents because there isn't a conversation that happens in this bullpen or in the round table room, or in yours or Rossi's offices that I don't hear at least part of. When the bullpen is quiet, I can hear you breathe in your office."

"That's..."

"I don't do it on purpose, and when personal conversations happened, I would focus on something else. I almost used shadows on Doctor Bryar, but I was afraid of someone seeing me. Gideon wanted me for my mind, not that I was a monster."

"Why don't we move to the living room?" Aaron said, and he reached out to cup Reid's arm. It was a gesture that Aaron had adopted over the past few months. Aaron didn't flinch when he felt how tense Reid got. Aaron gentled his touch, using it to lead Reid into the living room. Aaron sat down on the couch and used Reid's arm to direct him down onto the coffee table.

"Tonight is the night to ask me anything that you want," Reid said as he smiled at Aaron. There was no hint of teeth in that smile, but Aaron couldn't unsee them. The sharp points that he knew were made for ripping apart flesh. Aaron was still trying to wrap his head around it all.

"How did you know?"

"All of the lights and I could kind of feel the presence of another monster around your apartment. Then you brought Jack home with his broken arm, and Jack reeked of it. I was outside his window. I had been in the apartment. I was trying to figure out who was after Jack and get rid of them before it all came to this but then I realized that it wasn't just a regular monster. That whoever it was, the monster was new and fighting to be wholly in the human world and not just the shadows. I had a watch set up, and just small things happened. I had hoped that me being here watching Jack would force the monster out. I did not expect the storm to take the power out. And yes the storm started to die when Foyet did. It was his own making, and that meant that his power was strong, but I was stronger, well I knew a better way to kill. If he had gone for just outright wanting to kill Jack months ago, he could have done it but his energy was based in fear, and that meant that he wasn't as powerful as he thought he was."

"There are probably a million other questions that I need to ask but where exactly are you planning on sleeping?"

"I was going to sleep on the couch. Plato can find a place to sleep in your room."

"That couch is hard as a rock and too short because it's too short for me and believe me I know. I have fallen asleep on it more than once and paid for it. I have a chair in my room. It's a recliner. It's better than the couch."

"I can always just bring it out here."

"Do you have something against sleeping in my room?"

"Do you?"

"I offered didn't I?"

"You were holding a gun on me earlier. I'd rather not wake up to you holding a gun on me again."

"I won't."

"You say that now."

"Reid." Aaron made sure that it was his Hotch voice as Jack called it.

"I reserve the right to defend myself if I wake up and you are holding a gun, and it's pointed at me. Duck is back with food."

Aaron frowned because he did not see the little spy but he did hear the clatter of something in the kitchen. Aaron stood up and moved in there to see two bags of food on the counter as well as a jug of what looked like tea. There was a bag with the letter H on it and one with the letter S. That wasn't hard to figure out whose was whose so Aaron grabbed the bag with an H on it and the jug of tea. Reid grabbed his bag and found two glasses in a cabinet.

There was no talking as they ate. Aaron sat on one end of the couch and Reid the other. Boxes with burgers were set on laps while the more substantial boxes with fries and onion rings were set on the middle cushion. Aaron watched Spencer out of the corner out of his eye as the younger man ate. He didn't act any different. He ate with the same care that he did on cases, his fingers making sure that the burger didn't slip every time that he took a bite. The burger was consumed first before Reid even touched his fries.

Aaron filled up both glasses with tea after he finished about half of his food. Reid wiped his fingers on a napkin before picking up the glass.

"Thanks," Reid said, and it was the only thing that he said until all of his food was gone.

Aaron was the last to finish eating. Reid had already cleared his away and refilled his glass before Aaron was done. Aaron couldn't stop staring at him.

"Show me," Aaron said.

Reid had tea in his mouth, and Aaron was almost covered in it, but Reid covered his face as it came out of his mouth in a spray. Aaron grabbed a towel that was left on the back of the couch from who knows what and handed it over. Reid cleaned up his hand and face before he turned his attention toward the floor.

"What exactly do you want me to show you?" Reid asked.

"I want to see what you look like in your monster form without all the blood all over you."

Reid looked at Aaron like he was assessing his mental faculties. Aaron tried not to glare because he had learned that the glare worked wonders on getting Reid to do what he wanted. That was when Reid was human though or acted human. Aaron had no reference for any of this. If it hadn't been for the very adult-sized bruises on Jack that were not from him and were forming before Aaron's eyes after Jack came running out of his bedroom, crying. Aaron never would have believed any of this. It had made him start to look into things, and he had found a few message boards with some things like it but never anything that made him feel better about any of it.

"What makes you think that you can demand that?" Reid asked.

"Because I know you and given everything that you have done with your Little Spies, you'll do anything to make me feel better about this." Aaron felt a little guilty because while that was the type of person that Spencer was, he was also a person and Aaron wondered what seeing him in his monster form was considered to be for monsters. It was a whole nother world for Aaron, and he was so out of the loop that he had no clue what to do.

"And if I refuse?" Reid asked.

Aaron felt his mouth drop open because he never thought that it was something that Reid would do. Aaron was still staring at the young man when he saw the slight turn of his lips that said he was getting ready to smile. Aaron pushed at his shoulder.

"I don't know what you need to do. Before your clothes came back when you became human again but I didn't really notice them before."

"My shadows were blocking them from sight of sorts. I'm made of shadows, but it is easier to be naked when I do it. Why don't we clean up the food and I'll make sure that things are safe before we go to bed? Just because Foyet is dead doesn't mean that he didn't have monster lackeys of his own to take care of things if he failed. There are all kinds of monsters, and many would rather roll over and do whatever anyone with more strength tells them than to be their own monster. That's the other reason that I want to stay."

"In my room," Aaron demanded. Jack had Ash, and it didn't seem that moving around in the dark would be that hard for Reid.

"In your room," Reid said as he nodded. He unfolded himself from where he had been sitting down on the table and moved to where Aaron's stock of lights was.

"We can turn them all off," Aaron offered.

"And invite other things in?" Reid turned to look at Aaron with a strange look on his face.

"You said that your Little Spies have their own spaces and they can keep them from being taken over by another monster or another spy. How could you do that with this place?" Aaron wouldn't mind going back to having a place that he could shut off the lights in. Reid cocked his head to the side and frowned as he stared at Aaron.

"For one thing, this apartment was easy for Foyet to remember and get back to because of what happened here that night. Another monster getting in wouldn't be so easy, and most won't care unless Foyet sent them after. However, the issue lies in claiming the space. Ash knows that his space is that space. While I am just staying here. It's harder with apartments, and there is no real...ownership. It's why I live in a house."

"And it's why you offered to have me and Jack go there for this because you can protect the space better?" Aaron asked.

"Not so much protect it better, but monsters already stay away from it. Here, I'll get a few that will be drawn close to the apartment, but when they find me here, they will either think I've already got the kill or that I am protecting the person. If I'm protecting, they will only try and enter if they have a death wish. They will already assume that whoever is getting the kill will slaughter them to protect their rights of conquest as it were. This apartment is brighter which will leave little places for them to go. My machine that protected Jack, you'll notice that even when I shut it off, it didn't turn off all of the lights. It left enough on to be able to see everything by. I didn't turn it all the way off until the power had come back on. I've met many children over the years that have seen the monsters, and I make units like that for them. I've had that one for Jack in a bag for a while."

"That's why you were coming over more."

"Yes. I was hoping that the monster would be dissuaded, even if it was Foyet. He never learned how to be scared as a human, but I hoped as a monster."

"You know that when you say his name, your lips widen a lot and your teeth go sharp."

"While I do not gain pleasure from killing, normally, a good and righteous kill like that does make my blood pump a little more. He was an easy kill but the thrill of protecting Jack more than made up for it. The last monster that I hunted and killed took a day, and we traveled across three states as I wounded her again and again."

"Born or made?"

"Born. She had grown to like the killing a little too much. There are those in the FBI that give me files on some monsters that need killed and not in a human way. Others get thrown into the path of the BAU."

"Have you done it often?"

"No. I don't like to do it, and I don't like to take time off from the team." Reid touched the off switch on the lamp, and it turned off. Aaron's eyes darted around, and he braced. Reid just smirked.

"Let's go to bed. I feel worn out," Aaron said. He turned to do just that. Reid was in sleep clothes already, but Aaron was not. He grabbed his sleep clothes and stepped into the bathroom. Aaron could hear Spencer moving around the room. Aaron looked at his face in the mirror. He had debated leaving Reid with Jack, but Reid had seemed so sure that whatever Jack's fear, Reid would protect him and in the end, Reid had been the only one that could. Aaron wanted to demand that Reid tell him that he was sorry for lying but Aaron could understand the shadow world that he lived in and keeping it away from the happiness that he had found on the team. That world that stripped him of his mother in one way or another.

Aaron opened the bathroom door he saw that Reid was looking out the window with the curtains actually drawn. Aaron hated the shadows that were made by the curtains when it was dark out, the darkness creeping into the room, so he had bought blackout curtains for the entire apartment.

"You are taking this better than the stories I hear of other humans." Reid turned around to face Aaron leaning back against the window and looked at Aaron like he was challenging him. Aaron had never seen that look before. He stepped forward, and Reid met him halfway.

"I'm not like other humans."

"No, you are not. Turn around, and I'll strip and shift."

Aaron did as Reid asked and stayed turned around until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Reid was entirely shifted and while most of him was near invisible due to the black of the shadows that seemed to wrap around him. Aaron's eyes had a hard time focusing on Reid, but the more he forced it, the more he could see the lithe frame that the shadows hid. Aaron touched Reid's chest and trailed his fingers down his chest. A gust of air around him had Aaron looking up to see the wings that were there on Reid's back. Aaron gripped Reid's waist and turned him. Reid only shifted to brace his arms on the wall. Aaron touched the base of Reid's wings. The wings flapped as Aaron found a muscle of sorts that ran along them. Aaron watched as Reid shivered at the touch.

"Up until Jack was attacked," Aaron started as he felt bold for the first time in a very long time. He let his hand drop so that he could wrap it around to Reid's front, his form not that much of a turn-off. Reid looked more lithe and almost ethereal in his monster form. Aaron was reminded of the talk of looking fair and feeling foul summed up Reid's form. Aaron hadn't paid much attention to his face though. Aaron splayed his hand on Reid's stomach and waited for the reaction. "I had plans. Grand plans that were fucked by the monster after Jack."

"What plans?" Reid asked his voice coming out breathless.

Aaron pressed his forehead to the skin just above the wing joints and could smell something that he recognized as Reid's scent before he had known what it was. It smelled a little like burning flowers but not bad just...different. Aaron knew that his judgment was probably clouded a little bit by the fact that Reid had saved Jack's life that night and probably Aaron's as well but he had wanted the man for years but had never acted on it. Aaron had almost invited Reid into his bed after his divorce, but he knew that feelings that were more than just lust were involved and it would hurt both of them if he did that. Aaron didn't answer with words, he trailed his hand down from the stomach to where the tips of his fingers were brushing the crease of Reid's groin.

"Oh," Reid uttered. There were several seconds where he did nothing, said nothing and Aaron almost back up but Reid shifted, and Aaron realized that he had spread his legs more. "You can touch."

Aaron took it as it meaning he could do what he wanted. He went right for where a cock would be on a human. There was a cock there, and Reid groaned as Aaron pumped it. It was hard, and Aaron wanted to see it. He wanted a lot, and not all of it was precisely sane.

"Is it hard to maintain this form?" Aaron asked.

"No. Shifting takes a little but once in either form, it’s no harder to maintain than breathing."

"What kind of Monster are you?"

"There is no real names just vague ideas of what our forms are. I think that I'm the basis of Dark Fae. I know of a guy who has very sharklike features, and it just gets crazier from there. Why?"

"Mostly humanoid, meaning..." Aaron trailed the hand that had been not doing anything back to Reid's ass. He found the cleft and trailed his thumb down it. Aaron didn't know why he was doing this but he wanted it, and Aaron had promised that when the thing that had been after Jack was taken care of, he was going to after what he wanted.

"If I didn't know that you wanted me before this I would tell you that you are insane. However, I have smelled your lust and want before. So you want to fuck me like this?" Reid asked.

"I don't want to fear this. Knowing it intimately would stop that." Aaron was honest because he felt that he needed to be. Anything less would hurt him or even Reid.

"If you develop a kink for this, I might just make you my favorite human ever." Reid turned suddenly in Aaron's arms and grabbed Aaron's neck and held him, it should have been scary, but Aaron just stood there with his head tilted up to make sure that he could breathe. Reid crushed their lips together. When Aaron didn't fight the kiss, Reid dropped his hand and grabbed Aaron's waist with both hands before he started to back them toward the bed. He pulled back just as suddenly. "Get naked. I refuse to let you fuck me while clothed."

Aaron didn't even hesitate at all. He started to strip as Reid walked around him to get onto the bed. There was less shadow around him, and Aaron could actually see his entire body. Reid looked a lot thinner than he usually did but Aaron knew that black was slimming and Reid's skin was midnight black. Reid was utterly shameless as he laid back, his legs spread and his long, thin, hard cock on display. Aaron pushed down his boxers and started to crawl onto the bed but stopped. Reid's eyes were bright red, Aaron hadn't paid that close of attention to them before. It should have been scary as fuck, but it wasn't.

"Come here," Reid demanded softly, crooking his finger again. Aaron moved up Reid's body until they were face to face. Reid's teeth were stark white, pure looking. It reminded Aaron of the Cheshire Cat. "You can touch. You can do what you like."

"Anything?" Aaron asked, grinning.

"If you do something I don't like, you'll know." There was a hint of promise in those words.

Aaron laid a hand over Reid's neck as he propped himself up on his other arm. Reid's lips parted in a sharp exhalation. Aaron didn't move his hand. Reid licked his lips and grinned at Aaron.

"How the hell do you hide this from everyone? I would have thought you practically virginal," Aaron asked as he slipped his hand from the front of Reid's neck to the back to lift his head up enough to kiss him. Unlike the last kiss, Aaron was able to control it, Reid never tried to stop it or change it. His hands though grabbed Aaron's waist and held him in place.

"Do you have lube?" Reid asked.

"In the bathroom." Aaron ducked his head to nip at Reid's throat before he got off the bed. Aaron only used lube in the shower because he hated cleaning up the mess in the bed if he jerked off in bed. He found the bottle and found that it was mostly empty and he had no other bottle. Aaron groaned and hoped it was enough. He didn't want to hurt Reid.

Aaron came back into the bedroom to find Reid in precisely the same position that Aaron had left him in. Reid turned his head toward Aaron. Aaron's entire body felt like it wanted to run away. That he needed to leave for his own safety. Aaron stared at Reid and the longer he did, the less the feeling got. He knew that Reid was dangerous, he had seen that, but Reid would never hurt Aaron, or anyone on the team really. He had already proven he would do what was needed to protect the team.

"How do you want to do this?" Reid asked.

"I don't know. How about we just start with what feels good and go from there?" Aaron crawled onto the bed and settled himself on top of Reid with a smile on his face. It was interesting to see Reid's dark skin contrasting to the whiteness of Aaron's sheets. Aaron reached down and ran his thumb over Reid's lips, the blackness parting to show the white of his teeth and Aaron realized that the inside of his mouth was black as well. Aaron set the lube down on the bed and shifted to where he could splay his hands on Reid's chest. Reid's skin was deep black, but it darkened even more at his nipples. Aaron thumbed at the both of them. Reid gasped and his skin hardened under Aaron's touch. Aaron slipped a little farther down so that he could mouth at the hardened skin. Reid pushed up like he wanted more skin in Aaron's mouth.

"Don't stop," Reid gasped.

Aaron grinned before he licked again. Reid gripped Aaron tight with his legs, holding him in place so that he couldn't move at all. A hand tangled into Aaron's hair next, holding him there as well. It was tight and perfect, and Aaron didn't want to move anyway. Aaron looked up long enough to grab the lube and coat fingers before he went back to marking Reid's skin. He sucked a bruise into the skin, but nothing showed up. Aaron pressed one of Reid's legs up and trailed his finger down to the entrance. Reid gasped and bucked as Aaron pressed his finger inside.

"Won't need more than two and lots of lube."

"Whatever you want."

Aaron pressed in a little farther before pulling out and refreshing the lube on his finger before pushing back in. A few passes and Aaron pressed in with two. Reid spread his legs farther as Aaron sat up to press in as far as he could. It had been years since he had sex with a man but it was like riding a bike.

"How does it feel?" Aaron asked.

"Better if you were in me."

"Do you want to be on your back or knees?" Aaron asked.

"How do you want me?"

"You don't have a preference?"

"This is your fantasy, Hotch."

"What about yours?" It hadn't been a fantasy of Aaron's until right when Reid had allowed Aaron to feel him up.

"Mine's being in my human skin and fucking on your desk. Can't do that here." Reid rolled his hips a little and reminded Aaron that there was something that they needed to do. Aaron pulled his fingers free and reached for the lube to slick up his cock. Reid hadn't asked about condoms, so Aaron didn't worry about getting one. Aaron had been celibate since his divorce, and he trusted Reid to have brought them up if he was worried from his end. Aaron pressed the head of his cock inside of Reid, slow and steady. He was warm, warmer than Aaron expected, even given the warmth of Reid's skin. Reid grabbed the bed when Aaron was all the way inside. This had started as something lustful, but Aaron wanted more. Aaron grabbed Reid's legs and bent them, pressing them into Reid's chest on the side so that he could lean down and take Reid's mouth in a kiss. Reid seems almost shocked at it but it doesn't take long for the kiss to turn hot and heavy and Reid to cling to Aaron's body. Aaron was shocked by the undulations that Reid's body does in time to Aaron's thrusts, making it oh so good and so perfect.

Reid came untouched between, pulling Aaron after him with a shout. Aaron rested his head on Reid's shoulder as he tried to control his breathing as he came. Aaron wanted a lot more than what he just got. Reid was going to be there for at least a week. Aaron thought about it and thought about what was going to happen. Aaron felt his body start to betray him as he slipped slowly toward slumber. Aaron pulled from Reid gently and dropped to lay on his side. Reid was covered in sweat, but Aaron didn't mind as he laid his head on Reid's upper chest. Reid stretched a little and then one of his hands tangled in Aaron's hair and tilted Aaron's face up to kiss him. Aaron was a little startled by that. He closed his eyes though and submitted to the kiss before yawning.

"Stay," Reid whispered.

Aaron stayed where he was as he felt Reid slip from the bed. He listened to the water running in the bathroom and sighed before stopping fighting the sleep that wanted to take him. It was all too much, and he felt safer than he should have.

* * *

Spencer listened to Hotch's breathing deepen before he walked to the bathroom. He would need to clean the man up before he settled in for the night. Spencer turned on the water in the sink to have it start to warm up. He wasn't sure that he was going to get much sleep at all, too awake from everything. The rustle of bedding had Spencer looking to see that someone was climbing up on top of the bed. Spencer saw that it was Duck when the little one got on top.

"Everything good." Duck looked bored. He looked at Hotch, the man had to be asleep because he didn't react at all to words spoken by Duck.

"Then what are you doing in here?" Spencer asked. Usually, the spies all hid from him when he was intimate with a human. Usually the rest of the night. There was a disconnect between the spies that he had found when he was a child and teenager and seeing Spencer as sexually active and an adult.

"There be a message on home answering machine. Other monsters feel the disturbance caused by your fight and John be checking on you."

"Really?" Spencer frowned as he looked at himself in the mirror. He knew that he was entrancing to some with his form. He had never thought that Hotch would like it. Spencer watched his form blur around the edges, and he could see the bruises as they became stark against his white skin of his human form. Hotch had marked him up, and Spencer hadn't noticed. He didn't process pain the standard way in his monster form, it wasn't arousing, but small pain like hickeys was not noticeable.

"Yes," Duck sighed.

"Be gone with you."

Duck sighed again, but he disappeared back to wherever he was that wasn't in Spencer's hair. Spencer looked out and saw that Hotch was dead asleep, curled around the pillow that Spencer had been laying on. Spencer felt the water, and it was warm enough, so he found a rag and cleaned himself up.

Hotch didn't react at all to the cleaning up of him that Spencer did, or react when Spencer put sleep pants on him. Spencer grabbed his phone and found his sleep pants, foregoing anything more. He looked one last time at Hotch before leaving the room.

Jack's room was a sight. Ash was in the same spot that he had been, but Duck, Virgil, and Pizza were in there as well. Ash glared, and Spencer raised his hands up.

"We are both clothed so if Jack wants his father, don't stop him," Spencer whispered.

Ash nodded. Spencer knew that he had made the right choice on guard for Jack. Ash would probably stick with Jack for the rest of his life. Clara was going to be the same way. Spencer would have to find two to replace them. Spencer left the door open and moved to the kitchen. He grabbed a large saucepan then the milk from the fridge. He poured some of the coffee into the pan and grabbed the milk from the fridge. He looked in the fridge to find the chocolate syrup. He knew that it was a treat for Jack, so he knew it had to be there. He found it and set it beside the milk. Next, he found a whisk.

While the coffee would help keep him awake the making of his drink would settle him the rest of the way. Nothing that night had gone like he thought it would. He had hoped that Jack would be asleep when Foyet attacked, and he would be able to keep what he was a secret. No one higher up inside of the FBI was going to like that he had basically read Hotch in on something that Spencer long thought he should have been. The BAU ended up chasing at least a few monster cases a year.

When the coffee was starting to warm up on the stove, Spencer added the milk and the chocolate. He was making enough so that he would have some in the morning. When his drink was warm, Spencer ladled some out to a cup before turning off the fire and moving the pan off of it. Spencer liked that Aaron had a gas stove. Spencer didn't like the electric ones. He figured it was some deep-seated monster urge of his as a monster.

Spencer would let the coffee mixture cool before he put it in a container of some kind to put in the fridge. In the morning he would drink it cold and see if maybe Hotch would let Jack have some of it.

Cup in hand, Spencer moved to the window, perching himself on the small ledge of it but it was enough. He looked out into the city to see the lights. Spencer dialed the number in his brain that wasn't on his phone under a name at all.

"What the hell went on?" John asked as soon as the call connected.

"George Foyet bargained to stalk Hotch from the grave. He's dead after he tried to kill Jack tonight. Hotch knows what I am and a small basis of the truth of things."

"Dammit, Spencer."

"He walked in on me killing Foyet in my monster form, John, while I was babysitting Jack. Who has been stalked by Foyet for months and is the reason that his arm was broken. If I had left, they would have been killed. The scent is strong a lot stronger than most."

"I will work on a reason for the two of you to disappear for as long as it takes."

"I took over Gideon's CIA profiling, just have the two of us do something like that. It'll keep the team from asking questions, and you can get two weeks out of that."

"You think it's going to take two weeks?"

"Yes." Spencer didn't mind the lie, fucking Hotch would make the scent go away but making sure that father and son could function in the world. "Hotch will take care of Jack's schooling, and I'll get my doctor to write up something for Jack missing school like he will be."

"You've thought a lot about this."

"I've thought of little else since Foyet invaded the apartment and knocked the power out. Hotch has been dealing with those for months. You ought to have seen this apartment. I almost couldn't get inside but I'm tricky, so I did."

"I'll send word down to Strauss about you and let her deal with the team. I want to be kept updated on everything."

"When have I not?" Spencer asked grinning as he did. Spencer felt the subtle shift that told him that something was wrong. It was a scent in the air. He hung up on John, not caring at all what the man thought about it. Spencer set his mug down in the window seal, and he felt the incursion. Someone was trying to gain entry on what was his. Spencer looked around, seeing many spots that said that something was trying to gain entry. Spencer shifted to his monster form, the shadows masking his clothes as he wanted. The things trying to get in paused at that.

The first spy fell through a curtain and landed on the floor. Two more followed just seconds later. Spencer cocked his head to the side as all three started to look around. The first spotted Spencer and stopped moving, stopped breathing, hell it stopped everything.

"Sorrysorrysorry," it said as Spencer crouched as fast as lightning and grabbed it in his hand. Spencer wrapped his fingers around it and held on tight, his thumb pressing up into its neck, pushing its head back.

"Go back home and spread the word that this human is mine," Spencer threatened. He tossed the spy down onto the floor, holding in the wince as he was sure that he had hurt it. Spencer watched all three of them scramble for a shadow to escape from. Spencer picked up his coffee and down it before he walked to the kitchen.

Spencer cleaned everything up and slipped the carafe with his coffee into the fridge before going back to Hotch's bedroom. Jack was in Hotch's bed with Ash sitting on a pillow watching Hotch as he whispered to his son. The incursion had to have been felt by them. Spencer wondered at what exactly Foyet had spread among the monster world that had monsters willing to send spies to test his hold on the apartment. It was either that or the scent that Hotch and Jack were putting off was strong enough that the monsters couldn't resist.

"Reid," Hotch said, and he held up the edge of the blanket that father and son were cuddled under. Spencer set his phone down on the nightstand before slipping under the blankets. Spencer put his back to the door and cuddled close to Jack who seemed to slump in relief. "See I told you that he didn't leave. He was just drinking coffee it seems."

"I don't like it here," Jack said.

"How would you feel about going to Reid's to stay?" Hotch asked.

"I don't know. Can we try and see how it feels?"

"Sure. We can eat breakfast here and then load up everything that you guys will need. Ash and Duck can slip around and get things if something is forgotten."

"Or we can do breakfast at IHOP," Jack yawned and turned over to bury his face into spencer's neck. Spencer looked at Hotch and saw him nod. Jack really wanted out of the apartment.

"IHop sounds good. I like their waffles."

"It's a pancake place, gotta get pancakes, Spencer," Jack uttered as he started to fall back asleep again. Spencer laughed and pressed a kiss to Jack's head. When Jack was limp in his arms, Spencer looked up at Hotch to see him staring at Spencer.

Spencer realized that they were on the wrong sides of the bed. He knew that the side that Aaron was on was not the one he usually slept on and Spencer would preferably be between them both and the windows.

"We need to swap sides," Spencer said.

Hotch nodded and slipped off that side of the bed. Spencer carefully slipped over the top of Jack before rolling the boy back into the spot that he wanted to be in and watched as Aaron turned off the main light in the room before settling down into bed again.

As a human or a monster, Spencer didn't spend the night with his sexual partners. He didn't like being clung to or cuddled. This felt different though. Jack wanted him, and he didn't feel like he should disappoint him.

"We can discuss things better in the morning," Hotch said before he closed his eyes.

Spencer felt the settling of the room as the two full humans finally fully succumbed to sleep. He listened for a long time as Hotch breathed at a steady pace. Spencer counted the breaths, in and out until he was floating.

Spencer woke up with a start as he realized that he had indeed fallen asleep at some point while listening to the Hotchner male's sleep. Spencer felt lumps on his side and realized that several of his spies had decided to sleep with them. Spencer opened his eyes to see that it was the same three that had been with Jack. Spencer wiggled a little, and the spies woke quickly. Spencer wiggled again and all of them scattered except for Ash who was asleep at Jack's head.

Duck came back and appeared on Spencer's shoulder.

"We take care of getting things. You guys shower and leave. We take care of everything."

"Okay. Make sure Ash is awake. I'm going to shower." Spencer disengaged himself from Jack and surprising from the arm that Hotch had thrown over him and made his way to the shower.

Spencer was adding soap to the loofah he was using of Hotch's when he heard the glass door open. Spencer turned to see that it wasn't one of his spies coming to report but Hotch himself.

"Good morning," Hotch said before he stepped up to take Spencer in his arms and kiss him.

Spencer's brain stuttered as he thought about the response that he should have to what Hotch was doing. Hotch swept his hands down Spencer's sides, knocking the loofah from his hand on purpose before gripped Spencer's ass and lifting him up at the same time that he pressed him into the wall. Spencer wrapped his legs around Hotch and moaned at the contact of their cocks. Hotch was already hard.

"Hotch," Spencer said as he slammed his head into the wall. He wrapped his arms around Hotch's neck and growled before taking Hotch's mouth in a kiss. Spencer felt his cock hardening against Hotch's as Hotch thrust into him. The water was hitting Hotch some and splashing back onto Spencer, but it wasn't a lot. Hotch came a few thrusts later, his hips stilling. Spencer groaned in frustration.

Hotch released his hold on Spencer's ass and let him settle his legs down to hold himself up. Spencer started to reach down to take his cock in hand when his hand was batted away. Spencer opened his eyes and watched as Hotch dropped to his knees.

"Fuck, Hotch. You don't need to-" Spencer pressed his lips together as Hotch licked Spencer's cock.

"Are you saying no?" Hotch asked.

"Isn't it the definition of insanity for a man to turn down a blowjob?" Spencer asked.

Hotch chuckled and licked at the head of Spencer's cock again. Spencer groaned as Hotch started to work his lips up and down Spencer's cock, taking him further into his mouth with every pass. Spencer could tell that Hotch had either never done this before or hadn't done it a lot, he wasn't sure on which.

Spencer heard the snap of something but didn't care what Hotch did. Spencer allowed his leg to be pushed up to where it was draped over Hotch's shoulder. He felt fingers press into his hole and shivered. Spencer always figured that Hotch was an animal when it came to sex, he was too buttoned up for him to be anything else but for it to be shown to Spencer so soon made Spencer shudder. He had never thought he would see this side of Hotch.

"How do you feel about me fucking you again?" Hotch asked as Spencer was just about to orgasm.

"Are you hard again?" Spencer asked. He was afraid that he had made a monster of a different kind. Spencer had never babysat someone as they came off of the smell of being newly found out about monsters. Spencer knew of people who did it. Spencer was kind of regretting soothing Hotch with sex. Spencer liked sex, but two weeks filled with fucking his boss was going to do something to him, he just wasn't sure what.

Hotch didn't answer, but he nipped at the skin of Spencer's hip before he stood up. Spencer's leg slid down to the juncture of Hotch's elbow, and Hotch pressed into him. Spencer felt Aaron's cock getting hard.

"How do you want me?" Spencer asked.

"Wrap your arms around me," Hotch said. Spencer did as he asked and just as soon as Spencer had his arms secure, Hotch lifted Spencer's other leg. By the time that Spencer realized what Hotch wanted, it was too late. Hotch was slipping his cock into Spencer whose legs were pressed into his chest and held up by Hotch's arms. Spencer wasn't sure how Hotch even guessed that he was that flexible. Spencer hissed as he was filled up. He hadn't ever let someone have him twice much less have sex with him twice, but Hotch hadn't even warranted a refusal. Hotch fucked him hard and fast, and Spencer could barely hold onto his own mind much less hold onto his body to stop his orgasm.

Hotch groaned as Spencer clenched around his cock. Hotch kept on fucking him until he finally came inside of Spencer. Hotch's knees buckled, but he slowly lowered them to the floor, taking Spencer's mouth in a kiss again as he started to come down from his orgasm. Spencer clenched his hand into Hotch's hair as they kissed. This was all too damned dangerous for Spencer.

* * *

Aaron wasn't quite sure what to make of what Spencer was doing, or not doing as it seemed to be the case. Breakfast at been eaten at the IHop that was near where Spencer's house was, a house that Aaron wasn't even really aware that Spencer owned. From there Spencer had walked back with Jack and Aaron had driven the car to Spencer's. Aaron had been a little unsure of going to Spencer's alone, but when he had got out of his car, there was almost a wave of peace over him.

Duck had moved through the shadows into the underside of Aaron's car seat and clung to Aaron's leg as he had got out of the car. Aaron was kind of glad for the assurance that Spencer was watching him in some way.

"So, can you let me into the house?" Aaron asked Duck. Spencer and Jack weren't in sight yet, and the thought that a monster would come and see about him and Spencer wasn't here.

"No. Master Spencer told me to wait here. He's checking out the neighborhood, and while I say that no one got into the house, he wants to check before he allows you and Jack into the house."

Spencer rounded the corner then, and Aaron saw that he was a little darker in looks than he usually was. Jack was jumping around and looked like he was talking a mile a minute. However, Spencer stopped at the edge of the block and stopped. His eyes became red for a few seconds, and Aaron stayed where he was even though he wanted to run toward him. Spencer crouched down and motioned for Jack to move around behind him. Aaron watched as Spencer helped Jack climb up to wrap his legs around Spencer's chest and his arms around Spencer's neck.

Aaron stepped to the edge of Spencer's property and stood there until his son and lover got close. Spencer turned to let Aaron take Jack.

"I had a few monsters I don't know come pretty close to my property and it's odd that it's happening now as I haven't had someone get this close in a while. You two stay out here, and I'll go inside."

"Duck told me the plans." Aaron held Jack close as Spencer walked up and opened the door before he even touched it. Aaron was shocked that he didn't use a key. Aaron looked down at Duck.

"Tic-Tic is the door person. He unlocks when Spencer gets close."

"I don't think that I met him," Aaron said.

"No. Tic-Tic is very shy. He will meet you when he wants to."

Aaron watched Spencer appear in the doorway again, and he waved Aaron inside. Aaron set Jack down as soon as they were inside. The door shut without Aaron touching it.

"I need to walk the perimeter and spend a few minutes outside. Please look around, pick a bedroom for Jack and yourself. My room is the attic so it'll be easy to know which is mine." Spencer disappeared out the door.

"Dad, what's wrong with Uncle Spencer?"

"He's just adjusting. This is a big change, and he's willing to take us in. He will calm down. He's also worried about what it means for someone to have come so close to his house. He's gone on cases longer than he was at our place and someone tried to get close."

"I'll take you up, Jack. To pick a room," Ash said, and he took off from the pocket in Jack's hoodie. Aaron had bought that for Jack a while back, and the boy hadn't wanted to wear it a lot, but he wore it more now than he ever had. Aaron understood why now.

Aaron didn't follow Jack up the stairs. He trusted Ash to make sure that Jack didn't hurt himself and Aaron was not going to pick a room. Spencer would have to throw him out of his room. Aaron wasn't going to let him hide from him. He was going to force the younger man to talk to him. One way or another.

The backyard was massive, Aaron mused as he stepped into the kitchen. There were windows everywhere in the kitchen. Spencer had done extensive renovations. Aaron had never seen a kitchen like this one, and he had been inside of a lot of them as an agent.

"Not many like the kitchen. Too much light," a spy said from a little almost bean bag in the window above the sink. There was a Kindle on a stand in front of the spy. "Hello, Master Hotch."

"Hello, little one." Aaron stepped over to the spy and held out a finger for it to shake. The spy looked at the finger and instead of shaking it jumped and flew to land on Aaron's neck. Aaron felt it rub against his neck. "Who are you?"

Aaron looked up at the back door as it opened and there stood Spencer with a set of keys in his hand. His eyes were looking at the spy on Aaron's shoulder. Spencer was looking at the spy with a fond look on his face. Spencer stepped up to press a kiss to the spy's head.

"Don't be rude," Spencer whispered before he moved past Aaron. Aaron reached out and grabbed Spencer's hand, pulling Spencer back to him. Spencer looked shocked and unsure right up until Aaron kissed him. Spencer pulled back seconds later. "Hotch, we shouldn't."

"Why?"

"I should have never let you talk me into your bed last night. You are reacting to everything and taking what little solace you can in the fact that I am someone that you know."

"You said that last night you knew that I wanted you before this."

"Wanted me when you thought I was human and normal and not a Monster that could rip your throat out with my teeth."

"You are still Spencer Reid," Aaron protested.

"You don't understand," Spencer said, and he pushed at Aaron, but Aaron held fast.

Aaron looked around, and when he found a patch of wall that had nothing on it, he pushed Spencer back that way. Spencer fought him, but Aaron overpowered him, shoving him hard into the wall. Spencer grunted, and his hand pushed into the wall. Aaron heard the wall make a near crunchy sound. He looked down to see talon-like fingers pushing on the wall as Spencer's entire body shuddered. He went from visible to near invisible with the darkness that was pulling Aaron inward. Aaron heard the shattering of glass from all around and felt the spy on his shoulder flee. The room darkened like a storm was outside.

"You don't understand," Spencer said again, and his voice was horrible and alluring all at the same time.

"I see you for what you are. For the parts that I could never make fit before. I see you as the wonderful person that you are, and this is only one part of your life."

"I can't love you," Spencer spat, and he pushed Aaron back. He kept pushing until Aaron slammed into a counter. "You see a house and kids and happiness, but I can't love you. I can like you and respect you, but I can't love you, Aaron Hotchner."

Spencer pushed Aaron just a little more, and then he was gone. Gone in the shadows. Aaron watched as the shadows disappeared from the kitchen. Aaron looked around to see glass everywhere from the lights. There was enough light from the windows to make sure that Aaron could see enough to know that he shouldn't move around a lot.

"We have this," Duck said as he flew in with a little brush in his hand. A few more appeared, landing on things in the kitchen. They crawled down the chair and table legs, two were using the handles on drawers to climb down. Aaron watched them. The one from earlier was back in the window with the Kindle in front of him.

"Come here, Little One," Aaron said. The spy didn't move.

"Go get him," Duck said.

Aaron looked down to see that there was a path made for Aaron in the glass. Aaron stepped over and touched the edge of the little bean bag to let the spy know that he was there. The spy looked at him.

"You talking to me, Master Hotch?" the spy asked.

"I am. Why don't you show me around?" Aaron held out his hand, and the spy crawled into it.

"Don't leave my Kindle," the spy said.

Aaron grabbed the Kindle with a smile. It was one of the older ones that had all buttons and no touchscreen. It looked well used and well cared for. Aaron tucked it under his arm. Aaron walked back through the path that he had gone over to the window and walked out of the kitchen.

The spy took Aaron around through all of the rooms on the ground floor before he was directed to the second floor. The first two rooms were opulent and very empty of anything personal. Each room had a distinct personality that wasn't Spencer at all. The third room was better and set up for a kid, and that was where Jack was with Ash. Aaron watched with the spy on his shoulder until Jack realized that he was there.

"Daddy, this room is awesome. There are so many books and some really cool tools. Ash said that it was made for Henry but that I can use it."

"I'm glad buddy." Aaron smiled at his son before pushing off of the door jamb and stepping to the door that was opposite the room that Jack was in. It was an office with deep reds everywhere. Aaron shut the door behind him and just looked around. There was a desk in the middle that held a vast and empty work area with pads of paper and three different coffee mugs filled with pencils, pens, and markers respectively. Aaron found many books on the shelves that were in languages that Aaron couldn't place and many were on monsters. Aaron put those back as soon as he read the title on them. He wasn't going to read those without asking Spencer's permission.

This was the room that Spencer spent a lot of time in besides the kitchen. Aaron could see the wear patterns from where he would sit in the old leather chair in the corner and the one that was in front of the desk. The whole room screamed the Spencer that Aaron had come to have affection for and it spoke of the person that Spencer was.

"What does this lead to?" Aaron asked as he touched the door that was on the wall that should have led to the master bedroom but as Spencer's room was in the attic, it couldn't.

"Bathroom," the spy on Aaron's shoulder whispered.

Aaron opened the door and flicked the light on in the room. There were no windows, and the bathroom was decadent in ways that spoke that it was the one that was attached to what should be the master bedroom. Aaron wondered what was on the other side of the opposite wall. There was a door there, and Aaron stepped up to it.

The spy on Aaron's shoulder hissed and tensed as Aaron opened the door. Aaron looked at it and then reached to find the light in the room. Aaron blinked as the room was still dark even with the light on. There were significant blackout curtains over the windows, and there were weapons of all kinds all over the walls. Some of them Aaron had seen in history books. Aaron stepped over to a mace and touched the spikes. It was sharp and well cared for. The floor was padded from corner to corner.

"Spence's workout room," the spy whispered.

"Really?" Aaron asked because if not for the padded floor, he would have called it a torture room.

"Yes. Spence has human machines in the basement for running and lifting and other weird things that make him ache, but he needed to know how to fight because he has enemies, so he learns all weapons."

"Thank you, Little One for the tour. Why don't we go and spend some time with Jack?"

"Can read?" the spy asked.

"Yes, you can read." Aaron untucked the Kindle from his arm and showed it to the spy. Aaron stepped out of the room using the main door, flicking off the light and plunging the room into darkness.

Jack was happy to have Aaron with him for the rest of the morning and right up until a little spy came flying with a tiny chef's coat on.

"I has mac and cheese ready," the spy said with a smile on its face.

"And who are you?" Aaron asked as he felt the spy that had been in his lap climb up his shirt and latch only his neck.

"Cniffy," the spy said with a bow. "I hads help with food, but only I know the recipes to make food actually taste good."

"You didn't have to cook. I could have."

"Is my turn. Better than Eros and Anteros. They cook pizza every single time because they find it funny to make Pizza eat pizza. Last time it was on bagels, and they played hockey."

"Eros and Anteros, aren't they twins in mythology?"

"Yes," the spy on Aaron's shoulder answered. It cuddled closer to Aaron's neck. "We reproduce asexually, Spence told us about that. Well instead of one, two was made. They be the offspring of Aphrodite. Aphrodite was killed a long time ago, and Spence thought it good to name them after the Goddess who birthed them, even though it didn't birth them so much as...you can learn that. It's in a book in Spence's study."

Aaron nodded his head in understanding and started toward the kitchen. Jack followed behind with a line of spies running to keep up with him. Aaron found it funny that they liked Jack that much.

There were small plates all over the counters, and the sink was running as spies took drinks out of the spigot before it was shut off. Aaron saw that Cniffy was serving all of the spies as they carried their plates up to it. It was quite a production and Aaron was enjoying watching it. His spy didn't leave his shoulder though, and Aaron saw that there were no extra plates out.

"Where are the plates?"

"Tic-Tic usually eats off of Master Spencer's plate," one of the spies that Aaron didn't recognize right off said. It had a plate full of mac and cheese in front of it but took off toward the cabinets.

"I eat off your plate?" Tic-Tic asked Aaron.

"You sure can." Aaron grabbed one of the human-sized plates and stepped over to the pot of macaroni and cheese. He made sure that he put about as much as he thought that he was going to eat on his plate as well as the amount the other spies had on their plates. "Come on, Little One."

Aaron stepped away from the counter and looked around for a place to sit. Jack was sitting on the floor with his plate sitting in an opened drawer. Aaron smiled and sat down beside him, holding his plate with one hand and a fork with the other. Slowly, the spies all came to rest on the floor as well. Tic-Tic didn't leave Aaron's shoulder so, between bites of his own, Aaron would hold up the fork with a noodle on it. Tic-Tic hummed each time that Aaron did it.

The spies all ate slowly and talked among themselves and Aaron just soaked it up. Jack spoke with the spies, but Aaron didn't feel a need to.

Jack was content to play with the spies all afternoon, so after Aaron called Jessica and told her that he was doing something for work and that Jack was with him, Aaron let himself get lost in Spencer's study. Some books had sketches of humans doing experiments on Monsters as well as histories that spoke of the secret government agencies in America as well as England that worked with Monsters. The author of one book he even spoke of meeting a monster in military intelligence employ during the Second World War.

Night fell, and Aaron got up to figure out what was being done for dinner and found that it had been sandwiches. Aaron poked around the fridge and found that there was a lot of things in there that the spies could just grab and eat. There was a checklist on the fridge that had checks on things that Aaron found there was none of in the fridge or very little of it. Aaron had wondered how Spencer kept them fed when he was gone for so long.

"How does this work?" Aaron asked after making himself a sandwich with roast beef on it and Tic-Tic one with three kinds of cheese and a little mustard.

"We mark off what we want. We fax it to store, the delivery guy drops it off, and Spence goes and pays for it when he in town."

"You fax it?"

"Oh, yes," Tic-Tic said. He seemed really excited and very happy about it. "We mostly self-reliant. There many of us and one of Master Spence. That's why we don't cook often but eat veggies and fruits. We love watermelon, but Spence has to cut that. We get one and you cut?"

"Sure. Jack likes watermelon. He likes the one with seeds so he can spit them."

"Oh, yes. We do contest see who can get the farthest." Tic-Tic wrapped its arms around Aaron's neck and hugged him, not letting go even to eat when Aaron offered it a bit of cheese from his sandwich. Aaron finished off the rest of the food, and as he stood up, Tic-Tic climbed to the top of Aaron's head and settled in his hair.

The rest of the spies were not visible like darkness had fallen and they had scattered. Even though Aaron hadn't done much he had not gotten good enough sleep the night before, to worked up from sex and emotions and so he was worn out. After washing his hands and cleaning up after himself, Aaron went upstairs. He grabbed the book he was reading from the study and Tic-Tic's Kindle before finding the stairs that led up to the top floor, Spencer's attic bedroom. Aaron had hoped that Spencer would be there, hiding out but he wasn't.

"Why does Spencer think that he can't love?"

"Monsters can't love. Lust is easy, Spence says. He can want someone but love...it's not there."

"Why?"

"No know. Just how it is." Tic-Tic jumped off of Aaron's head and took off toward a window. There was a little light attached to the window sill, and Tic-Tic turned it on. There was another little bean bag there, and Tic-Tic settled into it. Aaron settled Tic-Tic's Kindle into the stand there.

Aaron watched Tic-Tic read as he stripped himself naked before finding clothes of Spencer's that would fit him. Aaron laid his book on the bedside and looked around the room for the first time. It was comfortable and what Aaron always thought that Spencer's bedroom would look like. Soft and inviting and nothing like what a bedroom for a monster who couldn't love would look like.

"You going to stay here?"

"What? Why? Where you going?" Tic-Tic looked a little frightened.

"I'm going to put Jack down for the night."

"Oh. Okay. Tic-Tic stay here."

Aaron nodded and walked down the steps from the attic. The steps were between Spencer's war room and Jack's room, so it was easy for Aaron to slip into Jack's room. Jack's bed was more significant than what was in most children's rooms, but all that seemed to mean was that all of the spies were able to fit into the bed. There were fourteen spies all scattered around Jack, listening to Jack tell them a story.

"Hey, Jack," Aaron said.

Jack looked up, and Aaron could see that he was tired. Jack was already dressed for bed.

"You ready for bed?" Aaron asked as he sat down beside Jack, making one of the spies take off.

"Ash said he would read to me tonight," Jack said with a yawn. He laid down like just stopping reading was making him tired. "I want to hear him read to me in the dark, so I'm not scared of the dark."

"Okay, but if you need me, I'll be in Spencer's bedroom."

"Eros said that Uncle Spencer is out making sure that we are safe. Is he?"

Aaron looked at the one that Jack spoke about, and he nodded. "Of course, he is our protector isn't he?"

"Uncle Spencer loves us," Jack said, and his eyes drooped closed. Jack shot them back open and then shut them again. He would probably fight sleep for another five or so minutes. Aaron figured that he would just to make sure that he stayed awake while Aaron was in there.

"Yes, he does," Aaron said because it wasn't a lie. Spencer might not think that he loved them, but Aaron knew that he did, in his own way. Monsters might not think they could love, but Aaron was sure that they could. Especially Spencer. There was no other emotion to call what Spencer felt for Diana Reid other than love.

"Good because I love him too and all of the spies." Jack's eyes shuttered closed again, and Aaron leaned over to kiss him good night. Aaron found Ash and petted his head.

"We protect him," Ash said.

"Good. You need me you come and get me."

All of the spies nodded at that. Aaron stood up and shut off the light before shutting the door. The room was adequately dark, and Aaron wasn't sure if Jack would have nightmares or not. Kids were resilient, but this was different. Foyet had given Jack nightmares, and he hadn't understood everything that had happened. But Jack seemed to want to be strong, so Aaron would let him unless Jack needed him.

The house was silent as Aaron did a walk around it. Checking every single window and the three doors that led outside. The small room that had the washer and dryer as well as what looked like a collection of work shoes and boots that were all muddy had a door. It was solid wood with a window to look out and had a deadbolt on it. Aaron wasn't shocked about that. Spencer's house was secure even if it didn't have an alarm. That kind of shocked Aaron but then again it didn't. The spies would protect the house and Aaron weren't sure that there was a company that knew about Monsters. There had to be, but Aaron didn't want to assume.

Tic-Tic was still reading it's Kindle when Aaron slipped back into Spencer's bedroom. Aaron was going to make Spencer talk to him, even if it was to yell at him to leave the bedroom. Spencer had told him to pick but hadn't mentioned that this room was off limits. Aaron would have still gone to sleep in it even if he had.

"Aaron tired?" Tic-Tic asked as he reached over and shut off his Kindle before closing the case on it.

"I am Little One. Are you?"

"Yes. Very. We worked lots yesterday and all on edge all night."

"Then let's go to bed." Aaron pulled the covers loose before slipping under them. The bed was perfect and the sheets soft as sin. Tic-Tic hesitated as it jumped onto the bed before it crawled up to cuddle into's Aaron's upper arm, it's head above the heavier blanket that was on the bed.

Aaron would have thought that falling asleep would have been hard but the bed smelled like Spencer and it made Aaron feel safe in a way that he hadn't felt in a long time.

Something was nagging at Aaron as he slept, his brain kept fighting his body as his body was relaxed and didn't want to get up. However, the sound of a pen scratching on paper finally pulled Aaron from his warm dreams. There was a soft light on in the room at the edge of Aaron's vision. He blinked a few times to clear it before he looked around.

"I feel like the three bears. I came home, and someone had eaten my food, sat in my chair, and slept in my bed," Spencer said.

Aaron sat up and reached out for a light, but there was nothing on the stand. He felt the bed move and then light flooded the room. Tic-Tic was standing under a touch lamp, it's hand stretched to hit the spot on it. Tic-Tic scrambled back to Aaron climbing his sleep shirt and settling on his shoulder.

"Interesting," Spencer said, his eyes on Tic-Tic. His hand still wrote on whatever he was writing, Aaron figured it was a letter of some kind.

"What's interesting?" Aaron asked.

"Tic-Tic hates humans. It was caught by a human and held in a room full of light, and it couldn't escape. The human allowed her cat to maul him. There are some areas where his fur won't grow back because of the scars. He hates cats because of it and is scared of humans."

Aaron looked at Tic-Tic, and it rubbed its face on Aaron's. Aaron remembered a case where a cat had been used as a torture instrument to another kind of animal. The evidence had never been included on what kind of animal. Aaron remembered that JJ had been horrified that a woman had been the cause.

"I see you remember the case. I found it in that cage and allowed it to escape before the rest of the team got there. It went to the SUV and followed back to the hotel and then it wouldn't leave. We roomed together that case, and it was hard to keep it hidden from you."

"Tomorrow, you are going to tell me every time that a case has had anything at all to do with Monsters."

"Of course." Spencer was writing again, and Aaron realized that it wasn't a letter but a journal.

Aaron flipped the blankets off of himself and scooted toward the end of the bed. Spencer looked up as Aaron was getting ready to sit up. Aaron stopped, pinned by the gaze of Spencer.

"Some humans know what I am without knowing, it's why I try and seem meek and unassuming, it makes their minds second guess and allows me to blend in. Hiding is what has allowed me to build up the life that I have."

Aaron got up off the bed, Spencer's eyes following him. Aaron didn't look down as he took the pen from Spencer's hand followed by the journal from his lap. Aaron set them on the stand beside the chair. Spencer's eyes widened as Aaron lowered himself to sit in Spencer's lap. Spencer turned his head as Aaron's intent became known. Aaron reached out and gripped Spencer's chin and forced Spencer to look at him. Spencer's eyes darted around Aaron's face before finally settling on looking Aaron in the eye. Aaron felt Tic-Tic jump down from where he was and disappear from Aaron altogether.

"Why are you so dead set on starting this?" Spencer asked.

"You say that you can't love, but love isn't everything. I love Haley and look what it got me. If you act half as much as you do to the spies to Jack and me, it would be better than nothing."

"Can you truly start something with someone that will never love you back?" Spencer looked at Aaron with what looked like guilt in his eyes.

"Devotion is just as good as love. You are devoted to your little spies, you are devoted to your mother, and no one who has ever seen you with Henry can't tell me that you aren't devoted to him." Aaron was sitting cross Spencer's lap, so he had to keep Spencer's head turned to the side to keep their eyes locked. He could see the war in Spencer's eyes before the defeat and Aaron felt terrible that Spencer thought it a failure that he gave into what Aaron wanted. Aaron would teach him how to love, show him that he could.

"I will do this if it's what you want, but you have to promise me something, Hotch."

"Aaron," Aaron said.

Spencer closed his eyes for seven seconds before opening them again.

"You have to promise me, Aaron, that when this ends, when you leave because you can't be with my anymore, let me go. I've been offered a position to start up my own off the books BAU that takes only Monster cases of all types, from petty crimes to bigger things. I've turned them down every single time, but I won't stay on the team if this ends. I can't...do that to you or to myself. I become obsessed with lovers. I tend to want them around me all the time, I get jealous. Promise me this, Aaron or I'll go now. I'll leave and just watch from the shadows until the time that you no longer smell like you do."

Aaron swallowed because he wanted to tell Spencer that it would never happen. Aaron loved with all that he was, and while he wouldn't call what he felt for Spencer love, not yet, it was affection, and it was deep, and it wasn't going to take much to turn it into love.

"I promise," Aaron whispered before taking Spencer's lips in a kiss to seal that promise. Spencer pulled on Aaron's hip until Aaron straddled his waist. Aaron wrapped his arms around Spencer's neck as the kiss continued until he realized that Spencer had a plan on why he had Aaron turn like that. Aaron was grabbed by his ass as Spencer stood up. Aaron didn't feel any arousal from their kisses and Spencer didn't feel hard. Aaron was dropped on the bed.

"You slept last night and rested most of today. I, however, did not sleep well last night or rest much at all today. If you wake me up before dawn for anything short of the end of the world or a Monster invading, it's going to be months before any part of your body, including your tongue, gets inside of me."

"Yes, Sir," Aaron said with a smile as he scooted back to where he could get under the covers again. Aaron looked at the time. It was just after midnight. Spencer stripped naked and dressed in a pair of sleep pants but no shirt before getting into bed with Aaron.

"Come on, Little One," Aaron called out to wherever Tic-Tic was in the room. Aaron felt the bed jostle a little as Tic-Tic landed.

"I saw the mass sleepover in Jack's bed. You know that's pretty much going to be the norm for the next week to two weeks as you are both here. Tomorrow, you will call Jessica over, and we will talk to her. I will not have this all hidden from her. Ash will be harder to hide now, and Jessica is just enough on the edge of it all. There is plenty of room for her here, and if she wants to, I can make sure that her job won't have an issue with it."

"She can put off going into the office, and as long as she has a computer, she can do the rest of her work. Are you sure about this?"

"I've done little more than think about everything and anything to do with this."

Aaron wasn't sure that Spencer was ready for the changes that were going to happen with having all of them there at the same time but he would go with it for now. He was sure that Spencer would freak out at some point.

* * *

Spencer was reading in the backyard after breakfast when he felt the incursion on his land. He dropped his book down and looked for the best shadow to go to the front of the house. The woman who stood there on the lawn looking at the house in shock.

"Huh," Spencer said as he looked at Jessica Brooks. Spencer had only met her once, at Haley's funeral and then there had been several people from the FBI that were Monsters there. He had not noticed anything about Jessica that was not normal at all that night but then he had not met her fully. After walking on the uneven ground of the graveyard, his knee had been hurting him. He had been taken to sit down and there he had stayed until it was time for the team to go and hunt an UnSub.

"Aren't you interesting?" Jessica asked as Spencer opened the front door, Tic-Tic was somewhere with Hotch inside of the house. Tic-Tic had been the last added to Spencer's group, after the death of Aphrodite, Spencer hadn't wanted to add anyone else to the household until Tic-Tic had been found. Spencer was glad that Tic-Tic liked anyone at all and Hotch was an excellent human to attach itself to.

"I'm more interesting than you, yes but I think that from my perspective you are much more interesting." Spencer stepped back from the door and stood there, waiting for her to make the decision to enter. When Jessica was inside, Spencer shut the door. There were no spies in visual range, but Hotch and Jack were standing in the living room.

"Why are you in here?" Hotch asked. Spencer had told him that he would stay outside until Hotch had talked to her a little bit.

"Because she's not human," Spencer grinned as he stepped up behind her and inhaled. The faint scent of Monster washed over his sense and the grin turned bigger. "She's not fully Monster, but she's not human. Haley had none of this."

"No, Haley was human. I am not my father's child. Not biologically. Father never knew it, and neither did Haley. My father came to me when I was young to explain the way of the world." Jessica didn't seem that upset, but she was wary.

"Not a full human either was he?"

"No. He said that he was closer to a quarter. Enough to know about the world but nothing extra. I can tell something is supernatural, but that's about it. What are you?" Jessica didn't move at all, keeping Spencer at her back which showed how stupid she actually was. Out of everything in the house, Spencer was the most dangerous.

"She smell good," Duck said from where he kind of appeared on the chandelier. Ash was next on Jack.

"I've never seen a white one." Jessica crouched where she was. Ash stayed with Jack and didn't seem to want to leave him at all.

"Ash is its name. I have twins as well."

"Three? Wow."

"Twenty-eight, Aunt Jess!" Jack said as he kind of ran up to Jessica to show off Ash.

"What?" Jessica turned on her heels to look at Spencer finally. "That's impossible."

"I have twenty-eight. Fifteen live with me full time, and the other thirteen are elsewhere. Though I've lost one to Hotch and I asked Ash to watch over Jack. So really I have fourteen that live with me full time and fourteen that don't. Ash with Jack and the other thirteen you don't need to know. And I'm sure that the number will drop again when Hotch and Jack can go home."

"I tried to get ahold of my father to deal with the thing that was after Jack, but he's not answered." Jessica looked very upset at that.

"Oh, I think he might have, and I scared one of his spies off. Don't worry, the thing that was after Jack is dead. I killed him quite hard." Spencer reached out to ruffle Jack's hair and grinned before ushering everyone into the living room. Spencer sat down in his chair where Duck landed in his lap. Jack settled on the floor where he had been coloring. Hotch sat down on the couch, and Jessica sat with him. Tic-Tic crawled into Hotch's lap and nudged Hotch's hand until he started to pet the spy. Spencer knew that he was going to lose Tic-Tic when they left and that meant that keeping the place safe and healthy for the two spies would mean that Spencer would have to visit often.

"What are you?"

"I'm full Monster, as much as anything can claim to be full anything. I use shadows, and I protect what I consider mine, and the team is mine, everyone related to the team is mine. I just can't believe that I never figured out what you were."

"How did you not know from the funeral?" Hotch asked.

"Because this kind of job attracts all kinds monsters in every form and there are a few like me in the higher echelons of the FBI, and they all went to Haley's funeral. There were too many for me to find Jessica in all of that. She's so very diluted that Jack or you retain nothing of her scent after about three minutes, so that is why I never noticed it inside of your apartment and such. I'm actually shocked that Foyet never went after her. It would be easy as she had no defenses like me and other monsters but knows enough about it all to know what was coming after her. That kind of fear can be intoxicating."

"I want to see your form so that I don't freak if I ever see you in it."

"Hmmm, I don't normally show anyone it but." Spencer stopped at looked at Hotch. Jessica was just enough of a monster that she would smell if Hotch got hard. Hotch swallowed and nodded, looking away. Spencer wasn't sure that he would be able to keep his eyes from turning to look at him, but it was what it was.

Spencer stood up, Duck jumping down to run to Jessica's lap. Spencer glared at him. He did not want loose another spy. Duck stuck his tongue out at Spencer. Spencer stepped around the couch, and as he passed Hotch, he petted Tic-Tic who purred at him. Spencer stepped into the hallway to strip down to his underwear. He wore boxer briefs for a reason, the black wasn't the same color as his skin, but it allowed him to stay hidden better and his cock from flopping around. Spencer let that part of himself that he liked to keep hidden to come out. Wings and everything. Spencer had kept his hair from turning the time with Hotch and while defending Jack because it wasn't hard to do, but his hair was startling to those who saw him. Like his eyes, his hair was red, but it wasn't bright red like his eyes. No his hair was a deep, deep burgundy. It looked like dried blood, which Spencer had always found fitting.

Stepping back out, Spencer stopped when he realized that Hotch had followed him. Hotch was right there, and Spencer almost ran into him. Hands reached out to grab him by his waist and pull him close for a kiss. Spencer tried to pull out but he was too late, and then Hotch's mouth was over his. Spencer growled at Hotch before taking what Hotch wasn't precisely offering, but Spencer wanted.

Hotch grunted as Spencer spun him and near slammed him into the wall. Spencer plundered his mouth. Hotch's hands on his waist tightened, but he didn't push at Spencer or make a sound that wasn't a happy sound. When he realized that Spencer wasn't going to take it any farther than what it was, Hotch went lax under Spencer's hands. Spencer broke the kiss and nipped skin on his cheek until he could get at an ear.

"You like playing with fire don't you?"

"I was going to get hard no matter what, and it's better to just show her that we are this than to hide it and have her find out later," Hotch said back.

Spencer growled again and pushed back from the man he wanted to do a lot more than shove into the wall and kiss. "I want you spread on the bed and naked by the time that I get up there. You've had me, several times but now it's my turn. You want her to know? That's fine, but I'm going to stake my claim on your body the rest of the way."

Hotch swallowed and slipped from between Spencer and the wall before walking right to the steps. It was going to take the entire two weeks for Spencer to get over his want of hotch's body more than getting rid of the reek of newness on Hotch's body.

Spencer turned around to see that Jessica was smiling at him and Jack was coloring away again. Spencer uncurled his wings and let them stretch and flutter and do what they wanted to feel good.

"So I see that this whole thing has finally had Aaron admitting to what he wanted."

"He's got a small monster..." Spencer trailed off and looked at Jack before he mouthed the word kink to her. "If you don't mind watching Jack for a little while."

"I don't mind at all."

"Good. There is food in the fridge, and the first floor is free to be looked at. I would not go up onto the second floor right now. After Hotch and I are done, I'll give you the rest of the tour." Spencer didn't wait for Jessica to say anything else. Instead, he stepped into the shadow in the corner before traveling to his bedroom. Hotch was indeed naked and on the bed. His legs were bent and spread open with a bottle of lube lying between them. Hotch's cock was hard and already leaking. Spencer stared at him wondering how the hell it had come to this. He thought about if he should find a therapist for him because his attachment to Spencer after finding out everything was insane. Hotch should have run the other way.

Hotch reached out to start to stroke his cock, his eyes falling shut as he did it.

"Stop," Spencer said, and Hotch's hand stopped instantly, but he didn't pull it back from his cock. Last night they had both been too tired for anything, and this morning Jack had woke up early and crawled into bed with them. Spencer pushed off his underwear before crawling onto the bed. He grabbed Hotch's ankles and pushed them up to where the man could only make the decision to let Spencer do what he wanted or fight. Hotch gave in with ease, and his legs pressed up to where his hole was on display. Spencer ducked down to breathe over his hole.

"Please."

"Oh, you want that?" Spencer asked, knowing that Hotch had spent a little longer in the shower than normal that morning. From years of working together, Spencer knew how long Hotch's showers took, even ones that were for stress relief. After Hotch had been done, Spencer had found something that he knew was not his own. He wondered which spy had gone out to get it and where the hell they had got it. "I never would have guessed with the detritus I found in the bathroom. Hold your legs because I am not going to."

Spencer ducked his head again and licked over Hotch's hole. Spencer was stronger in this form, his muscles were all stronger. Spencer ignored the lube that was just under his chin as he tasted Hotch in his most intimate place. Hotch was tense until Spencer dipped the tip of his tongue into the hole. LIke it was a sign that everything was fine, Hotch's entire body relaxed. Spencer didn't spend long on tonguing Hotch open. He had other plans and lubed up his fingers before slipping two into him. Spencer licked Hotch's balls as he worked the lube into the man. Spencer preferred to take people on their hands and knees, but with Hotch's fascination with Spencer in this form, it was going to impossible to get the man to do that right now.

Hotch was making noises that went right to Spencer's cock. The longer Spencer played with his hole with slick fingers and played with his balls with his mouth, Hotch begged, gasped, moaned and a made all kinds of noises that he never thought that the very stoic man would make. Spencer would love to have the man at his mercy, arms tied to the bed and legs held open like they were right now, making everything that Spencer did to him impossible to stop. For Hotch to give that much submission to him would be heady, and just the thought of it had Spencer's cock aching. Spencer pulled his fingers free to use the lube on them to coat his cock. He decided that there wasn't enough and opened the bottle to drop more onto his cock before smearing it around.

Spencer watched Hotch's face as he lined up his cock and started to push inside of him. Hotch's eyes fluttered, and his mouth dropped open in a gasp as Spencer didn't stop pushing. Hotch's body gave to Spencer with ease. He was tight and so perfect around Spencer's cock. Spencer would have to have this as many times as he could before Hotch left him. Spencer bottomed out inside of the man and groaned as Hotch's muscles fluttered around him. It was beautiful, feeling his skin pressed against Hotch's, his wings fluttering. He had not been able to have sex like this for so long that his wings were shivering in anticipation of everything that was to come.

"Move," Hotch panted as he opened his eyes. His eyes were black with arousal, and it made Spencer shiver harder. Spencer pulled out until the head caught on Hotch's rim before slowly pushing back in. Spencer grabbed Hotch behind the knees and held his body open so that Spencer could watch his cock on its slow drag in and out. It was wonderful and perfect and just too damned good. Hotch's hands slowly became slack and fell to the bed only to grab a handful of sheet each. His hands pulled tight enough on the sheets that Spencer was a little afraid of them ripping the longer he did this. Spencer wanted this to last for the rest of the day but knew that it wouldn't. Fucking was the easy way to get rid of that smell on Hotch but staying in bed long enough for that was going to be impossible and it wouldn't do anything for Jack's scent, but then that just gave them more time to fuck.

Spencer never sped up his thrusts, it was slow in and slow out, his body wanting this more than he wanted to fuck Hotch like a madman. TIme for that would come. He could even toss Hotch over the end of the bed and use it to keep the man where he wanted and fuck him senseless, hard and as fast as he could. Hotch wouldn't be able to do anything but take it.

The urge to orgasm crept up on Spencer, and when it became undeniable, he stopped denying it, filling up Hotch's hole with ease. He batted away Hotch's hands as the man tried to grab his own cock. Spencer had plans for that, and it did not include the man jerking himself off.

Spencer pulled out of Hotch as soon as his cock was soft. He grabbed his underwear to clean off his cock before he urged the man to roll to his stomach then pulled him up to his hands and knees. Hotch and done damned good at cleaning himself out, Spencer felt that he should be rewarded with another cleaning out.

"You touch your cock, and I'll stop this and leave you aching and unfulfilled," Spencer threatened.

"Spencer," Hotch moaned, and Spencer stared at him for a few seconds before ducking down to lick at Hotch's used hole. The tang of his release was sharp, but Hotch's skin was there as well. The taste of the two of them combined on Spencer's tongue, and he couldn't help shoving his tongue down into Hotch.

Spencer could taste the lube, but it didn't bother him. It was easy to overlook as he pushed his tongue into Hotch as far as he could.

"Fuck," Hotch said and his body listed like he was going to fall over but his legs tightened back up, and he was steady on his knees. Spencer licked his hole again before pulling back to watch his release start to leak out a little before starting to kitten lick the hole. "You. Fuck."

Spencer liked Hotch near wordless.

"You are the one that cleaned yourself out so well. You wanted this." Spencer rubbed his thumb over the hole before trailing his fingers down. He scratched over Hotch's perineum before roughly rolling Hotch's balls. Hotch's hips thrust forward, and Spencer shoved his tongue back inside of him. Spencer groaned as he felt Hotch's muscles start to contract just before orgasm. When Hotch was just right on edge, he pulled back and used his free hand to press fingers inside and find Hotch's prostate and start to stroke it. Spencer felt Hotch's cock expand in orgasm before the man even started to make a sound. Spencer milked him, pressing on his prostate at the same time that he stroked Hotch's cock. Spencer kept on going just until he knew that it was too much and then pulled his body back to where he wasn't touching Hotch at all. Hotch collapsed in a puddle on the bed. He looked fucked out, and Spencer just stared at him.

Hotch's eyes were closed, but there was a smile on his face. Spencer felt a sensation in his chest as he stared at the man, he had never felt it before and it kind of scared him. There were those Monsters that took mates by taking care of them, cooking to show their intent but Spencer had never thought that it was more than using a human to fulfill sexual needs and using the term of mates to make the human stay faithful. Spencer didn't care for faithfulness, but he didn't want to share Hotch with anyone but Jack and maybe the spies.

Mate.

Spencer stared at the man in his bed before he laid down beside him, rolling them to where he was wrapped around Hotch as they laid on their sides.

Mate.

Spencer frowned into hotch's neck and mouthed the word into the man's skin.

Hotch. Mate.

Spencer pushed himself closer to Hotch and felt his cock trying to get hard again from being pressed like he was to the man.

Mate. Aaron. Mate, Aaron Hotchner.

"Mate," Spencer uttered into Aaron's neck before he let his body so lax. They would need to clean up, but that would come later. Then for lunch, he would cook dinner because as much as he hated the thought of actually calling anyone mate, that's what Aaron was to him and he needed to do it right. No human power would recognize them as mates but the Monsters would. There was magic of sorts in cooking for the one that was your mate.

The ring of his cell phone had Spencer grabbing it as he felt a spy bringing it to him. Spencer looked at the name on the phone and silenced it.

"Who?" Aaron asked, his voice rough from where he had napped a little.

"It's Morgan. I'm going to ignore it. Probably been told about what we are doing as part of the coverup and shit."

"Did you call me mate?" Aaron asked.

"Yes. You are mine, in every single way that a Monster can claim a human and I intend to finish that off when we get up. You and Jessica can keep Jack entertained while I cook."

"You cook? I thought that you couldn't cook."

"There is a sort of taboo for cooking for just anyone in my world. Children are one thing and once I have claimed you as my mate, cooking for others won't be an issue, but I don't like to let those who know about the world think that I would ever cook for them to claim them. I've just...I never wanted anyone as a mate, and now here you are and making me think and feel things, and I want to hate you for it."

"You love me," Aaron said with a grin on his face even though Spencer could see it. He could hear it in his words and his tone. "I knew you would love me someday."

"Be careful, or I'm going to finish claiming you before I give you the wedding feast of sorts."

"Haven't you already though? I feel thoroughly claimed. I feel like I don't think I could ever leave you." Aaron grabbed Spencer's arm around his chest and held him close before letting him go again to turn in Spencer's arms. Aaron cupped the side of Spencer's face. "I think that I've been just on the cusp of falling in love with you for years but something stopped me, and when you revealed who you were to be, that last little bit went away and I could fall the rest of the way. You may not call what you feel love, but I feel loved, and I want this Spencer. I want this forever. Me and you and the spies and Jack, even Jessica. Our own little weird family unit."

"I won't lose any spies that way."

"Lose?"

"Ash I willingly gave over because children should never be harmed, but Tic-Tic was going to go with you as well. I don't like not having twenty-eight. I hadn't added after Aphrodite because it hurt too much but I was so relieved, and the thought of having to go and find more to replace was heartbreaking. Clara still considers herself mine, so she doesn't feel gone, but Ash is gone and has been since he met Jack. Tic-Tic feels only kind of gone."

"You poor thing," Aaron said, and it didn't sound sincere, but it wasn't mocking either. "I need to shower, alone."

"But I like you wet."

"And I don't think I could survive you and wet and doing that again. You can find another shower. I like the look of yours."

"Taking whatever you can huh?"

"It's my right as the mate to take what makes me feel good." Aaron slipped from the bed then, his legs wobbled, and Spencer grinned as he watched Aaron walk like he was drunk, still high on sex hormones. It was a good look on him, and Spencer wanted to do it to him as much as possible.

* * *

Aaron knew that the case had the earmarks of being a Monster. After going over many such cases with Spencer over the three months since Aaron had found out about the world, Aaron knew what to look for when JJ would present such a case. Aaron had also gotten used to Tic-Tic coming to work with him. So much so that Aaron had a drawer for the spy all cleaned out and full of shelf-stable snacks for it as well as bedding and another Kindle for him. That Kindle was full of what Tic-Tic considered work books. Which Spencer told him was just non-fiction books on human killers and sometimes biographies of regular humans. Aaron found it adorable and made sure that it had enough books to last it a very long while.

When the team arrived in sunny Flagstaff, Arizona, Aaron had been shocked that it would be a Monster case given how bright Flagstaff was. Aaron watched Spencer close, figuring out how he was moving around the city without anyone noticing. Aaron knew how hard it was to get rid of shadows in an apartment but to do it in a police station was impossible. The team had been given two rooms to use as the conference room was full of files from the basement as there had been a flooding issue just before the arrived. The second room was attached, and Spencer would slip in there to think with a warning that no one was to bother him. Aaron had seen Duck once in there when he had gone to disturb Spencer. The spy had disappeared, and a moment later Spencer was back.

"So," Aaron said as he stripped off his shirt to get ready for bed. He had showered that morning after his run, and he planned to run again the next morning if he got enough sleep, so a shower was pointless. "Are we going to be able to close this case?"

"Unsure," Spencer said without looking up from the book that he was reading. Duck had brought the book to Spencer just an hour before, and he had been stuck in it since then, including while the rest of the team had gone out to get dinner together.

Aaron got down to where he was wearing nothing before he stepped up to Spencer, grabbing the book from his hand and looking at the page number before shutting it. Spencer didn't use bookmarks with his reading speed he rarely never finished books, but if he had to stop, he remembered the page he was on.

"You are too tense," Aaron said as he slid his hand through the hair on the side of Spencer's head. He gripped the hair at the back hard to force Spencer to look at him. Spencer licked his lips before giving in to the pull. "So come over here and hold me down and rub off on me."

Aaron tugged up and started to walk back toward his bed. Spencer took the beds that were closer to the windows and Aaron the ones closer to the doors. The enemies that Aaron worried about came in through the doors, the ones that Spencer worried about used the curtains or darkness of windows to get inside the rooms. It worked well, and the team was settled into the fact that they shared a room. In the beginning, it had been weird when the rotation was changed to where there wasn't one anymore. Dave had been distraught to be paired with Morgan all the time that on occasion he paid for his own single room. JJ and Prentiss were happy to share all the time and the change in the budget to shared rooms all the time allowed Aaron to pay for more dinners for the team with FBI funds.

Spencer stripped quickly and watched Aaron settle himself onto the bed before he crawled up on it in his human body. Aaron knew that he had developed a kink for Spencer in his Monster form, but neither of them cared, so Aaron didn't worry. Aaron couldn't decide what he liked better. Spencer above him fucking him with his wings out or Spencer on his hands and knees with his skin so black that Aaron swore that it was a black hole with his pale cock pushing in and out of his hole.

"What are you thinking about that it has you getting hard before I even get on this bed?" Spencer asked with a smile.

"Fucking."

"I'm too tired for that, and I know that you are as well so don't get me wanting things that I can't have." Spencer reached out and finally touched, his fingers collecting the drop of fluid at the head of Aaron's cock before licking that finger clean. "I could suck you off and then after you come, rub off on you and see if I can get you hard again."

"Too much work." Aaron hooked a leg around Spencer's ass and pushed until Spencer finally gave in and let their cocks start the friction that he wanted. "Lube."

"Well, I was getting ready to grab it when someone got too pushy." Spencer wiggled his hand under the pillow that Aaron's head was on and it came out with lube clutched between fingers. Spencer flicked the lid open with a thumb and leaned up to drizzle it on their cocks. The snap of the cap closed had Aaron pushing with his leg again, and Spencer gave in with grace, letting Aaron set up the thrusting pace. Spencer dropped all the way down to take Aaron's mouth in a kiss.

"I love you," Aaron said when Spencer pushed up and separated their mouths. Spencer kissed down Aaron's cheek before nipping at his neck.

"Love you too," Spencer said before nipping at Aaron's ear. The words had been spoken by Spencer for the first time just two weeks before during a thunderstorm. The first crack of thunder had driven Jack and Ash into their bed for the rest of the night. Spencer had been on his side with a hand rubbing Jack's back to keep him asleep. Aaron had been on Jack's other side watching his lover comfort his son and feeling so much for the little family that he had created that the words had spilled out of his mouth. Aaron had said them before, but it was usually after sex. Spencer had shocked Aaron by saying the words back without even looking up.

There were no more words as bodies strained and pushed until both were sated. Aaron felt the pull of sleep and knew that he would fall under soon, but he wanted to clean up. When he tried to sit up, Spencer pushed him back down before getting up himself. Spencer slept little, and it was usually just for a few hours before he would get up to work on whatever he fancied. Aaron let his eyes fall closed. He felt the warmth of the rag clean him before the roughness of a dry one dried him off. Spencer covered him up and walked to the bathroom again.

Spencer settled into bed with Aaron, wrapping himself around Aaron from behind. They took turns on who was the big and little spoon, and it all depended on who fell asleep first.

Morning dawned too early as another victim had been found as the sun rose. Aaron hated that Spencer was more awake than him, but he had grown used to it now that he knew that Spencer's harried mornings where he seemed half asleep were all fake. Four hours of sleep was all that Spencer needed. That left him twenty hours to do anything that he needed. Which lately had included some of Aaron's paperwork.

"He's fresher than the others," Spencer said as he crouched at the side of the body, his gloved fingers touching the cuts on the body's skin. "The UnSub has changed his timetable to reflect us being here. We set up the patrols for the dusk hours, and now he's killing and dumping at dawn. Crafty fucker."

"Quite," Aaron said as he took in the alley that the victim was dumped in. It wasn't hard to understand the choice of dump locations. The alleys that were used were always full of trash. The UnSub hated humans and was making no mistake of making sure that they knew it. Spencer had called spies in to follow around with every single member of the team, and even Tic-Tic was watching over Aaron.

Spencer looked around to check the location of the LEOs before he looked up at Aaron. "I don't know if he knows that I'm like him or not but this is wholly a Monster case but we can still work it because he's able to pass as human so he can take the sentence that will be handed down to him."

"How can he be kept in a cell?"

"We have ways of policing ourselves. the DOJ will take care of him." Spencer reached out to touch something on the ground with his glove. It came back red, but there was something strange about the tint of it. "He's injured."

Spencer grabbed a swab out of his pocket and dipped it into the blood before slipping it into the tube, and he started to write on it. CSU had finished up with the scene before the BAU had arrived, so it was okay for Spencer.

"There is a lab in the city that handles Monster cases for the state, so I'll go and drop this off there. It might help me figure out what kind of creature he is based on his blood."

"You've talked about ones that are like sharks, yet you are more like a Fae."

"All of the creatures of mythology have a basis in one of us. There are minotaur and griffins, and all of the fantastic beasts that we've all read about."

"Don't think I didn't get that reference," Aaron said with a smile. Spencer grinned at Aaron before he finally stood up.

"I'm going to go and make a phone call to the lab, and then I'll go there. If I'm not back before you leave, I'll find you."

"You always will."

Spencer grinned, his mouth going a little wider than usual but it only made Aaron feel safe, and that was still something that he had trouble wrapping his mind around.

At dusk, the team was out in force after taking a forced nap in the afternoon to make sure that they would be good to function at night. Spencer was patrolling with Prentiss while Aaron was patrolling with Morgan and Dave. The UnSub had left more than blood behind, and it was enough to figure out a face, a human face.

Aaron felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, so he pulled it out as they rounded a corner. The city was full of people taking advantage of the cooler air of the night to shop. There was only a single word inside of the text, and it said bat. It was from Spencer, so that meant that it was a bat-like Monster that they were after. That also meant that instead of looking down, they needed to look up. Thankfully, the team was already good at that.

"So, Aaron. Since we are alone for once, what is up with you and Reid rooming together all the time?" Dave asked.

Aaron looked at Dave with a glare. "We got used to it while working that case together a few months back and decided that we liked it."

"So we are supposed to ignore the hickey on Reid's neck this morning?" Morgan asked with a grin.

Aaron looked up. Spencer was wearing a dress shirt and made sure that it covered it up that morning. Aaron had come back from his run a little frisky, and so their shower was full of touching even if there had been no orgasm.

"JJ saw it when he was leaning over to grab a folder after CSU started to send out reports on the body. It was fresh so either he went out to find some tail in a strange city while working a case which I can't see Reid doing. Or he got the hickey from his roommate, which is you." Morgan looked really satisfied.

The scream of a woman alerted Aaron that something was wrong up ahead. Aaron took off first with Morgan on his heels and Dave behind Morgan. Morgan passed Aaron by the next block, and the alley that they ran into was dark. Too dark for it to be normal.

"Stay back!" Aaron yelled at Morgan. Just as the words left Aaron's mouth, another scream happened, and then something swooped above their heads.

"FBI!" Spencer screamed from the other end of the alley.

"This isn't normal," Dave said.

"Morgan pull back to me!" Aaron yelled. Morgan did as Aaron said. Aaron started to walk backward but saw that they were inside of whatever the Monster had created to trap and kill his prey. It was so dark behind him that he could walk in front of a car and not know it. He understood now why Spencer had focused on traffic accidents between vehicle and pedestrian that happened around dusk. Spencer had a geographic profile that was different than the one that he had made for the team that took into account five accidents where a pedestrian died after getting hit by a car. Those had been chalked up to mental illness or taking a drug but never murder. "Dave, stay with me as well. Morgan do not draw a weapon."

"What the hell is going on?" Morgan asked.

In front of them appeared a strange woman as well as Prentiss. Aaron saw the hand that was touching both of them, making Spencer blend in with the darkness around them.

"Morgan, take the lady," Spencer said.

"Where the hell are you Reid?" Morgan asked, but he pulled the victim toward him.

"Trapped like rats in a maze. Where are the little humans going to go?" a new voice said.

"Hotch, call the spies."

"Little One," Aaron said. Tic-Tic was the only one that Aaron could call with any surety. He felt the cloth on his shoulder shift and then there was a trill from Tic-Tic.

"Bads one here. Need more?"

"Yes, everyone but the authors, please. And leave Ash and Clara with Jack and Henry."

"Henry?" Prentiss asked, turning to look at Aaron. Her eyes were wide as she took in the creature on Aaron's shoulder.

"Don't scream," Aaron said as he picked up Tic-Tic from his shoulder. "There will be thirteen more of these little guys come in. Well...'guys' is a little wrong they are genderless. It's is more like it. This is Tic-Tic, but I call him Little One."

"Hello Mistress Emily," Tic-Tic said as he gave a little bow. Aaron looked around to everyone to see them looking on in near horror. "We won'ts hurts you. I promise. We good little Spies. Master Spence teach us to be nice and to be good and to not hurt unless he tells."

"Master Spence?"

Then the sound of running drew Aaron's eyes up, even though he could see nothing around him. He passed Tic-Tic off to Prentiss, and she took it, but it pouted. Aaron didn't draw his gun, he saw a flash of red eyes that was too close for Aaron to like it, so he turned back to Tic-Tic just as he felt more than anything the rest of them appear.

"Find a person to land on. Morgan, Prentiss, Dave, please don't hurt them. They are little flying monkeys basically and just love to cuddle but will help defend you if what Spencer is fighting gets the upper hand on him."

"This is..." Morgan trailed off they all heard the thump of someone or something being thrown to the ground very hard. Aaron stepped into the darkness in the area that he heard the thump.

"I's brought knife," Cniffy said.

Aaron found him on Dave's shoulder with a very large knife in his hand. Aaron saw that it had very weird symbols on it. He took it, and Cniffy beamed at him.

"Good little Spy," Aaron said as he patted Cniffy's head.

"I knows."

There was a gurgle from where Aaron was sure that Spencer and the UnSub were fighting. It was a sound that Aaron knew well. A throat had been slit. The darkness started to fade from all around them. The victim screamed as Spencer was revealed in his Monster form with the dead UnSub turning back to look human at his feet. If it wasn't for the fact that his torso was still black, Aaron knew that the team would have questions about what the hell happened.

"So we are going to have visitors for a while?" Aaron asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"I hope they are fine sharing because I am not going to have JJ be the only one on the team that doesn't know and I will not have Will in the dark either. Jack and Henry can share. I won't be making the work quick by fucking them either."

"I didn't think so." Aaron started toward Spencer. Spencer's wings were tucked into his back, but Aaron could see them covered in blood from the fight meaning that he had used them to catch the UnSub. Aaron looked at the face of the UnSub as it finally turned to look human. It was the man that they thought.

"So I used claws to cut his throat, so you had better call the State Police to send their Monster unit instead of the city cops who don't have a monster unit at the moment."

"So why those victims?"

"I don't know." Spencer looked up at the woman who had been cowering in Morgan's hold but was no longer. Spencer stepped toward her, but she didn't flinch. "Interesting."

"You...I've seen you, things like you before."

"When?" Spencer asked.

"When I was a child. One of you killed my father when he was beating my mother."

"He's going after the humans that are on the edge of the world. Those who see us when they are small and put us off as scary memories." Spencer stepped up to her and touched her face with a clean hand. She didn't flinch. Only then did Spencer start to look at the others before beginning the change back to human. His clothes were covered in blood, more than what Aaron would have guessed, so he looked back at the UnSub who looked like he had got into a fight with a lion.

"Morgan, you and Dave stay here, Prentiss why don't you and the spies go and guard the other end while we wait for the Monster Unit to arrive?"

"And then this will all be explained?"

"When we are back in the hotel yes. Before that, I am afraid of what will be heard."

It was three hours later when Aaron was settling down onto the bed beside Spencer who was on the phone with the Monster unit for the State Police. DNA testing was being done on the blood that Spencer had found at the first scene, and a comparison would be made to the blood of the dead Monster.

"You know this is going to be rough," Aaron said to Spencer when he finally hung up.

"Bah. They are all smart enough to understand what they saw and that short of a mass delusion brought on by a gas leak, which all of them are too smart to believe, they all operate on the principle of when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. So they saw me change, they have seen my spies, that much be truth. Also, you are here telling them that they did not..." Spencer cocked his head to the side and was staring at Morgan. "Drink the Kool-Aid."

"You. I want to see you again," Dave said.

"No nakedness," Aaron insisted, but all that did was get Spencer to glare at him. He started to change right then, his skin darkening but the clothes stayed in place, and it looked really odd with his dark hair. Aaron could see why Spencer liked to be naked to change. He could also see when Spencer started to hide the clothes with shadows. Seeing it happen more than once, Aaron could see it all.

"I'll call the Director, and he'll put us all on a case for a week, given that we've worked a CIA case before I am sure that he can find another agency for the team to do a secret meeting at." Spencer sat down again on the bed and Aaron had missed when he stood up in the first place. "There are many clandestine groups that could use us on any given basis. JJ, Henry already knows about this so that won't be an issue, however, Will being told will have to wait until I am there to protect him. I would prefer that we all stay at my house, but I will allow us to take over Rossi's if we need to move because everyone is getting underfoot in my house."

"House? I thought you had an apartment?" Morgan asked.

"When I first came to DC then I moved when I decided that I didn't like having neighbors like that and my spies didn't like it."

"Too manies people," Tic-Tic said and shook its head.

"You weren't around!" Spencer said, but he was smiling and held out his hand. Tic-Tic crawled from Aaron to Spencer. Tic-Tic nuzzled in at Spencer's chin. "This is Tic-Tic he has developed an attachment to Aaron, so he spends more time with Aaron than at my house."

"I followed up on a case," Morgan started as he stepped closer to Spencer to hold his hand out to Tic-Tic like one would a dog to see if they liked the scent of them. "The woman who tortured animals. I never did get a list of animals that she had killed and I asked several times."

"She bad," Tic-Tic said as it climbed up Morgan's arm, wrapping around his upper arm. "She make me kill or be killed by kitties."

Morgan looked up at Spencer in shock, and his face turned green when Spencer nodded. Aaron wasn't shocked that Morgan had put that case to this quickly. Aaron had realized on his own that all of the cases that had left a weird twinge in his mind over the years had been Monster related.

Aaron barely listened as the team asked questions and Spencer answered them. He was focused more on what was going to happen when they all got to Spencer's. It was going to be interesting, to say the least. There wasn't a lot of room in the place, and it wasn't like the training room that Spencer had would be good for anyone to stay in.

"So you have twenty-eight of these spies?" Dave asked, drawing Aaron's attention back to him.

"Yes. Twelve stay with Mom in Bennington full time. They watch her and help other residents. They were all fond of her when I was growing up so when she went there, they wanted to go as well."

"Is there unit to handle these things within the FBI?" Morgan asked.

"No," Aaron answered, cutting off Spencer.

"Really?"

"Really," Spencer said with a smile. "There are a few of us scattered around enough within the FBI that everything that even registers that it might be Monster related is handled by one of us. There was chatter about starting a unit to deal with all walks of Monster crimes, but no one has stepped up to take over being the Unit Chief for it. I thought that after taking care of Foyet I might have to because of Aaron, but things went a lot different than what I thought they were going to go."

"Because instead of hating you he started a relationship with you?" Prentiss asked.

"More like forced." Spencer's eyes shot up to Morgan in shock. "Not like that. The sex wasn't forced. I like sex. I found that I liked sex in my true form with him but he pushed the relationship. He kind of never left when it came to that. I now have him and Jack living with me full time. It's horrible."

Morgan looked at Aaron and Spencer, unsure if he should laugh or get upset. When Aaron watched a smile part Spencer's lips, Morgan smiled back before laughing.

"This is a lot," JJ said as she sat down on the floor, finally overwhelmed by it all.

"It is, and the bad part is that you really can't leave at all because of that smell thing. It's all horrible but Jack and I were safe at Spencer's, and I know that you all will be as well."

"Duck has been talking to Jack it seems," Spencer said as he held up his phone. "He and Jessica are already going to my house to get the basement ready for a massive sleepover. It's where my main library is held, and I have the space. Air mattresses are being bought, and Jack thinks that it's the best thing ever. Ash is working on the menu for the week to two weeks."

"You really don't manage them as much as just let them do as they wish and manage you, don't you?" Morgan asked.

"Most of them have been there with me since I was a child. They see me as a child who is allowed to make some decisions. I learned that they were all working on Jack to get him to make sure that he and Aaron never left even after Aaron had bullied me into trying a relationship. They liked having more than just me there, even if Aaron is gone as much as me. Jessica stops by and makes sure that they don't need anything, and sometimes they stay until we get off of work or they go back to her place."

"You sound like you are happy though," Prentiss said before she sat down beside him.

"Yes. I never considered myself lonely until I realized that I didn't want to trade my new family for anything in the world."

"We have a little bit of paperwork to complete, and then we can leave. I've already got the jet set up, JJ. We will also pick up Will from work and his leave of absence for extended training has already been set up." Aaron had been doing a lot of work over the late night and early morning to make sure that this would go smooth.

"How is he going to explain this?" JJ asked.

"Easy, once he's back he's getting a new job if he agrees to it. The MPD doesn't have enough officers to handle Monster cases, and DC has one of the highest crime rates for it from what I have learned since finding out about this. He will work out of a different hub and will respond to all possible Monster related crimes. It would be slightly more erratic hours but less as well. He would help with other larger human crimes when he doesn't have an active case."

"Seriously?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah. I've been studying the history of Monster hunting as it were and law enforcement here in the US. In the eighties, there were experiments with making some officers be exposed, but that failed as many went insane or freaked out so much that they couldn't be officers anymore. So the law enforcement agencies the country over have had to court people that they know have been exposed as children and hope that they join the force that they want. It's part of why Spencer was never really fought on his joining of the BAU so early. There has been no Monster or person who knows about Monsters on the BAU. Gideon recruited Spencer for his brain, and after Spencer fought off undercover units and such, he was allowed to join the BAU. It's worked well as he's worked cases for over six years without alerting any of us that the people we were hunting were really a Monster."

"Are we allowed to look over that all?" Dave asked.

"Yes. I have all of the files still at the house from Aaron. It's all good and don't worry about your places. I'll have a spy check on them. I'll be sending Duck to check on your place Morgan as Clooney has already developed a rapport with him."

"Little Spies is a very accurate term for them."

"They have watched over you all in one way or another since I joined the team. Clara has been with Henry since the hospital. Ash has been with Jack since Foyet first really hurt him, that time he broke his arm. That's when I found out about the Monster after Jack. I've done all that I can."

"It was a spy that alerted Elle that someone was there," JJ said.

"Yes. Eros was the one that knocked the potted plant off, and that allowed Elle to draw her gun and shoot him before he even got close. I was there waiting to see what was going to happen but Eros did well and it worked out in all of our favors."

"Any shadow?" Dave asked.

"Any. The shadow under Aaron's desk was my favored before he and I became intimate. The darkness of the wood of the desk, as well as the fact that there is no light on the other side, make it a good shadow."

"I'm going to have to redo my house," Dave said.

"After the smell goes a Monster isn't going to give two shits about you. They rarely target humans, and when they do, we hunt them."

"Can we have spies with us for a while after?" JJ asked. She looked worried to Aaron.

"They sort of feed on the power that I put off. Some Monsters work inside of Bennington that allows the Authors to stay there. As long as they come back to me for a little bit each day or even just come into work with you and hide in my desk, it'll be fine. It won't work for a long time, but it'll do until you are comfortable to go home and stay alone. Ash does fine on his own with Henry because of the Godfather claim I have on Henry, it makes Ash able to bond with Henry so you two will be fine. "

"And we are going to tell Garcia?" Morgan asked.

"Yes. I'm going to have her meet us at my house," Spencer said. He looked away from Morgan, and his eyes got a faraway look. Aaron waved his hand to silence everyone. Spencer was thinking about something and trying to figure out how to get it done. Aaron ushered everyone to the side of the room farthest away from where Spencer was.

"We have a week, and you know that he'll give you a long spiel when he is home just let's get this all done so we can leave and get settled. He's probably going a little nuts right now."

"He's going nuts?" Dave asked.

"He is being nice about the smell thing. I've read reports that the scent of people who have found out about Monsters for the first time has drawn Monsters from up to twenty miles away and this is not his territory. We can discuss him being a creature later and get an anatomy lesson and everything that he is willing to share. I know it's weird as fuck finding out that there are things that go bump in the night but we can do it, together."

"I'm stuck on the fact that Reid had another thing growing up that kept him separate from everyone like his intelligence, his mom, his reading speed. It's another lesson that it's a good thing he's not an UnSub we chase." Morgan looked over at Spencer who was finally standing up.

"We've got work to do, and we need to get it done. Aaron, you drive the first SUV and Morgan you the second. My spies will ride with Aaron, and I'll ride with Morgan. JJ, I would like you to ride with me, but if you don't want to, that's fine. Prentiss and Rossi, please ride with Aaron."

"Of course, Spence." JJ stepped up and hugged Spencer. Spencer wrapped his arms around her and smiled when she kissed his cheek seconds later. Morgan was next for a hug, and Dave shook his hand. Prentiss looked at Spencer for a few seconds before he held open his arms and she hugged him as well. Aaron knew that the team would be stumbling for a little while till they could come out the other side.

This team had fought a lot of things that went bump in the night now adding another class was going to make their job interesting, they could handle it though, they had handled everything else that had been sent their way. Aaron trusted his team to come out on the other side.

# The End


End file.
